Although they were singing chapel, they were keeping rhythm really well. I was extremely impressed by that fact alone. The only “instrument” they were using was a pitch pipe to identify the starting note of the song. The quartet briefly explained that pitch pipes are used to help them harmonize and stay in key. The information I learned about the four-part harmony really surprised me. From what they told us, there four parts of a four-art harmony include the lead, tenor, baritone and bass.
The ladies also explained that the three types of harmony, choral harmony, Jazz armory, and barbershop harmony, create a triangle shape and that barbershop harmony is located at the top of the shape. As they were singing, I found it difficult to identify who was singing which part unless I focused on one person at a time. The group member singing the lead was singing the melody of the song. The tenor sang above the melody, the bass below the melody, and the baritone “completed the chord. ” To be honest, I was blown away that the eldest lady in the group was singing the part of the bass.
They sang a variety of songs and even though some were faster than others, they all had a very interesting tempo. Even the slower song that they sang had quicker syllables and transitions included in it, which I thought was an interesting dynamic. I enjoyed watching the quartet so much because it was clear that they wasn’t anything else they would rather be doing. The first song they sang was my favorite one. The song was titled “Lollipop”, and I recognized it from a commercial I use to see on TV all the time.
They would add little funny things throughout the song to make it more theatrical and the entire class would laugh. One of the ladies would make a popping noise with her mouth at Just the right time, and the bass singer would sing “bad dump dump dump dump” in an extremely low voice, which was beyond entertaining. I sincerely loved every part of the quartets performance. My favorite part, though, was when they divided the class into four sections, and taught each section a different harmonize part.
It was a fun, unexpected activity and even though we didn’t sound good, it was obvious that the class enjoyed the experience. I also appreciated the members of the group introducing themselves and telling us how long they’d been part of the barbershop genre. Before this concert, I had never really thought about quartets, or about that level of harmonize. It was refreshing to know that they are keeping such an old type of music alive, and that they enjoy every minute of it. The barber shop Music Paper 2 By tallish 1 in something I had never been interested in before.
