Here’s 2010 Silver Medalist Old School in the opening round of competition. There are five gold medals in this quartet — and that’s just on the left side! Turns out the veteran power-chorders were in first place after two rounds, but they couldn’t overcome eventual champion Storm Front‘s crazy antics–and Presentation scores–in the final round.

Beat that caption, PLEASE! The best one gets published in The Harmonizer!

To read the rules, click here to go to the initial post.

Have at it!

The last of the Collegiate Quartet Preliminary Contests is over, and we’re excited to announce that 29 collegiate quartets qualified for the International CBQC – which will be taking place on Tuesday, June 29 at 6:00pm in Philadelphia!  Read the rest of this entry »

Here it is folks!  Congratulations to ALL quartets!  Read the rest of this entry »

If you’d like some insight into how I select which stories go in The Harmonizer, here it is. Right or wrong, this is how I see my job as editor of the magazine, and this is how I filter through the many submissions and story pitches I receive. The following e-mail exchange shows a quandary that I face in knowing how to talk about ordinary barbershoppers among ordinary barbershoppers.

It started with an e-mail story pitch I just received from a barbershopper who belongs to a 10-year-old registered quartet that doesn’t compete. They perform about 60 times per year, mostly pro bono at hospitals, nursing homes and retirement facilities. He was inquiring about a feature regarding his quartet. The last part of his e-mail resembles several e-mails or conversations I’ve had:

If I must say so, we are very well received and entertain all of or audiences and are well know in our small cosmos. It is quartets like [quartet name] that is the frontline entertainers to the general public and deserve some recognition with an article in the Harmonizer.

How about recognizing the “trench fighters” of our society? It is great to be a top quartet and compete with the “big boys” and get recognition for GREAT singing but there are many more of us representing the society to the general public than “medal” quartets.

The following is my reply. It includes details about my selection process and some rough ideas I’m trying to pursue. Can anyone enlighten me about how we can give “common” quartets, groups and individuals coverage that would be interesting to the average barbershopper? Any critiques on my present thought processes? Anybody you know who would make for an interesting profile? Read the rest of this entry »

While it truly takes ‘four to tango’, the quartet’s failures and successes overall hinge primarily on the lead’s ability to take command of the ensemble during a performance.

This isn’t to take anything away from all the legendary basses, baritones, and tenors throughout the history of our Society, but when it comes down to it, isn’t it a lead contest?

As a lead who constantly struggles to improve his own feeble skills, I often ask myself, “If I were to step down from my current OR previous quartets and be replaced by one of the legendary leads in their prime, would the net gain be bigger than replacing any other part with comparable talent?” I think yes.

This holds true in secular music as well. Just imagine U2 without Bono… The Stones without Mick… Led Zepplin without Robert Plant. Queen was never the same without Freddie Mercury. And we’ve seen Van Halen without David Lee Roth. Not even Eddie Van Halen’s guitar magic could return the band to its previous heights under Diamond Dave’s tenure.

So to the leads out there, stay strong! And as my hero Mike Slamka says, “Sing it from the heart, or don’t sing at all.”

Yea, I know, who cares?  Right?

BUT…As a competitor, judge, and staff guy, I get around to many contests each year in several different districts and I always find it interesting how varying barbershop audiences can be with the way they welcome the competitors to the stage.  Read the rest of this entry »

The long anticipated release of the 2009 Anaheim Convention DVDs has finally arrived … TWO DAYS prior to our original projected shipping date!

Your HQ staff plus several of our wonderful volunteers worked together to get these out the door to you as quickly as possible.  And I mean quick!  The DVDs arrived to Harmony Hall from the duplicator this morning at 9:15 a.m., and as I write this at about 11 a.m. they are all out the door and in mail streams!

If you haven’t ordered your’s yet, there is still time to do so and receive it in time for Christmas.  But you must act fast.  Visit the Harmony Marketplace online to learn about what shipping options are available for the quickest delivery.  Or call 800-876-7464 and order yours today!

You told us loud and clear in surveys that the convention schedule must change. You wanted fewer overlapping events, fewer awards and more singing, and events that ended early enough that you could get an hour or two of tagging in before bed and still get a decent night’s rest.  Take a look at the Philly convention schedule and you’ll see some exciting changes that will give you more breathing room–more time to convene at barbershop’s international showcase.

But you didn’t want us to drop any of the events that have always packed our week. To give you that more open schedule you want (and not by inviting fewer competitors) we went back to hosting our first major event on Tuesday evening. (As an added bonus, it also helps keep the registration costs as low as possible–we actually reduced it from 2009!)

Here are some highlights from the schedule: Read the rest of this entry »

27 of the world’s best seniors quartets come together in Tampa, FL on January 29, 2010 to compete for the coveted gold medal.  Come to the Midwinter Convention cheer them on! Read the rest of this entry »

In an upcoming issue of the magazine, we’re going to be running an article on how some chapters and quartets are using Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, etc. to get new fans, new members, new audiences and build new relationships. I know of a few examples of barbershoppers who are using Facebook to sell more tickets and locate potential members. I would sure like to know some more.

• Do you know any success stories? (Yours or another group?)
• Do you you have any expertise on how to use social networking effectively in a barbershop or other singing environment?
• Do you have any questions that you want answered in an article like this?

Please share what you know or what you want to know right here!

(Note: Feel free to provide links in your response (if you know they’re clean), but know that comments that contain multiple links will usually go into moderation before they can be posted. If you comment doesn’t show up immediately, that’s probably why.)

Thanks for visiting the blog concerning the 33% criterion.  The position paper mentioned on page 24-25 of the July/August 2009 edition of  The Harmonizer is here: 7th Chord Position Paper. A copy of the article in The Harmonizer is here: The Hallmark 7th Chord.

Although this is not technically a change to the definition of the barbershop style, this criterion has been used for almost 40 years in defining the style that we are treating this change as such.  Given that, the process for change is as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

I have been musing about the variety of music we hear on the International stage and how much of it is, well, not so good. I don’t mean it’s not performed well – of course it’s performed well, these are the best practitioners of our style in the world! I mean it’s not all the very best music. Seems that, in an effort to do something unique, many of our competitors find some obscure song no one’s done before and, after it’s arranged to the hilt, they sing it for us.

This put me in mind of an experience I had ‘way back in school. I was opining (I tend to do that) about how contemporary music – 20th C. stuff – just didn’t hold up against the “classics”. Didn’t have the musical depth and value of the earlier stuff. A musicologist professor of mine said, “Well, you must remember that you’re hearing almost all the music that’s being written now and the music you hear from earlier centuries is only the best of the best. Time has winnowed out the stuff of lesser quality.” When you think of it, that’s true about all music of all times. I have a 40s channel on my Sirius radio. All 40s all the time. And lots of it is pretty bad stuff. Once in a while a “classic” will pop up, but for every “I Thought About You”, there’s several lesser tunes that have faded from the scene. Same is true of the 50s hits I hear at Wendy’s or whatever. Just the best stuff survived.

So, consider that we’re pretty much hearing everything anyone wants to sing on the contest stage each year. And that the “good old songs” that we remember as great (Thank you, Old School) represent a small fraction of all the songs that were sung on the contest stage in the 50s, or 60s, or 70s, or…

Just a thought. Might help with your bloodpressure next July. I know it will with mine.

A sensitive topic here, because we don’t need to eulogize people who are still with us! But I need to come out and ask this: Who are some of the barbershop icons that we need to talk to and interview now, just in case we never get the chance again? Read the rest of this entry »

We are beginning to plan all of the small details (schedule, classes, etc.) for next year’s convention.  Each year we take into account survey responses from those of you that came to the most recent convention to help us better prepare for future conventions, but we’d like to have an open dialogue here where we can share ideas with each other.  Here are a few questions to get you started: Read the rest of this entry »

I received this email from Bill Rohlin (a 40-year member of the Society) the other day which he’s given me permission to share here on the blog:

I’d like to see some songs in the BBS style from the top 100 hits from the years when our target demographic was in its teens.  We need simple arrangements.  If the tune could be contestable it needs to be clearly stated that the easy-to-learn version is not. If choruses and quartets could learn some of these songs they might generate interest in the 35 – 50 age group. Simple arrangements with gangbuster tags of songs from 1975 into the early 90′s would be my suggestion.  Surely there must be some songs from that time period that were not rap or heavy metal, some that can fit in. Just my thought.

Sing-cerely, Bill

We’ve seen many arrangers select pieces from the era of music and many of those songs have worked quite well for barbershop groups.  Many are not contestable but certainly make for good show material.  The Society has also published several titles from this era.  “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” “God Bless the USA,” and “You Raise Me Up” come to mind.

So what do you think about this idea?

AND MORE IMPORTANLY…what are some songs from this time period you think would fit the bill?

Guest post by Society Music Specialist Mike O’Neill, (also bass of Lunch Break, 2008 international semi-finalist):

Currently, we have 1,444 registered quartets in the Barbershop Harmony Society. That means, approximately 5,776 (it is probably less since several men are registered in more than one quartet) members of our Society sing in a registered quartet. Can you believe that fewer than 22% of our current membership is enjoying this incredibly important component of membership? I can’t either! As a matter of fact, I know it is more than that. We have hundreds of quartets in our organization who are not registered with the Society.

Many ask the question, “other than to compete, what do I get for being in a registered quartet?” Let’s help answer that. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I sent an email to all the men who joined the Society in the first quarter of 2008, asking for comments about their first year in barbershopping. The following is one of many replies. Read the rest of this entry »

So far registration numbers are ABOVE last year at this time but we can always use more help in getting the word out.  Please tell your chorus mates, local music teachers, friends in the Sweet Adelines and Harmony Incorporated organizations, or pretty much anyone that you meet that Harmony University is THE place to be July 26-August 2 this summer.  Let’s work together to make this year’s event the most fun and exciting HU yet!

 If you haven’t registered or decided on your final schedule yet here are few class titles you should consider.  Read the rest of this entry »

This is a cool idea from the Rocky Mountain District.

Has anyone else tried this? Have you participated in this? Inquiring minds want to know!

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dapper Dans barbershop quartet has been performing at Disneyland in Anaheim, California since 1959. That makes this year their 50th Anniversary in show business. To help commemorate this milestone and because the Dans have touched so many lives for so many years, the Barbershop Harmony Society will be presenting the Dans with a Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday night July 4, in front of a packed house at Anaheim’s Honda Center. Read the rest of this entry »

Many people got their first whiff of barbershop harmony watching the Buffalo Bills sing in Meredith Willson’s The Music Man.  Now, a new generation will have the opportunity to see barbershop on the solver screen once again, as the award-winning documentary“American Harmony” comes to theaters across North America this spring. Read the rest of this entry »

The annual Contemporary A cappella Recording Awards (CARAs) recognize the best of recorded a cappella music. CASA just announced the winners. Congratulations to our 2006 champions Vocal Spectrum and 2008 international semifinalist Lunch Break! See y’all in Anaheim! Read the rest of this entry »

 Real life in today’s world can be tough.  Wouldn’t you like a little escape from it even for just a few hours?  Maybe that escape is your chapter meeting.

Many chapters are taking advantage of being a positive release from everyday life. If you are in a chapter like that, what are some activities that you have incorporated into your meetings to make it just that more inviting, fun, warm and friendly, and a real escape from things for a few hours each week?

Read the rest of this entry »