Think barbershop is all "Down by the Old Mill Stream"? Take another look...today's barbershop music is exciting a cappella harmony that includes contemporary songs as well as traditional standards.
Barbershop music, with its close, unaccompanied four-part harmonies and ringing chords, is a uniquely American folk art.
Although no one can say exactly when or where barbershop music began, the growth of the tradition was certainly aided between the 1860s and 1920s by the types of songs popular at the time - uncomplicated melodies that could be harmonized with a variety of four-part chords.
Barbershop harmony, traditionally a male hobby, lends the men's part names to women's groups -- tenor, lead, baritone and bass. One of the distinctive qualities of barbershop harmony is that the melody, sung by the lead voice, is below the tenor harmony.
There are many criteria for "what makes it barbershop", but the most recognizable one, and the one we love as singers, is the characteristic of "chord ringing" -- the creation of harmonic overtones by perfectly tuning the four voices of the quartet.
Barbershop harmony has timeless appeal, because it's music by the people, for the people. It can take just a few minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. Finally, you can do it anywhere...all you need is three friends!
After World War II, barbershop singing was growing increasingly popular for men. In 1945, a small group of women wanted to participate in the chord-ringing, fun-filled harmony that the men were singing. So these women organized "Sweet Adelines in America." From its humble beginnings in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sweet Adelines International, as it is now called, has grown to a membership of almost 30,000 women in countries all across the globe.
