Mastering Vocal & Ensemble Skills
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Barbershop four-part harmony is one of the most rewarding forms of a cappella
singing. The distinctive characteristic of this uniquely American art-form is its expanded sound. This is created when the harmonics of the individually sung notes reinforce each other to produce an audible overtone. The results are an output that seems fuller than that of just four voices….thus expanded sound.
Barber-shoppers call this “lock” (all four notes sung precisely in tune) and “ring” (the production of a 5th unsung note that becomes audible as a result). Singing in a quartet or chorus and creating this expanded sound is one of the most thrilling musical sensations you’ll ever experience. This visceral reaction can make the hair on your arm stand up and elicit an ovation from your audience.
Barbershop harmony is for everyone. Anyone with the desire can learn to sing barbershop…and sing/perform it well. Singing is a skill after all, not a gift bestowed on a few. Be patient, however, as any skill can take time to develop.
Listen to the video of Main Street, the 2017 International Quartet Champion, as they demonstrate the basics of our magnificent hobby.
Make A Joyful Noise
To develop the skills necessary to sing barbershop well, we need to know how to produce the best, most accurate sound possible. This will require a very short trip (I promise) into the science of sound.
There are three requirements to produce a sound. It begins with energy applied to an object. This energy causes the object to vibrate, producing a phenomenon we call sound waves. These waves are amplified by surrounding surfaces and cavities (think the body of a guitar). This is called resonance.
In singing, the energy is supplied by exhaling a steam of air (a process called phonation). During phonation, air passes through a person’s vocal folds in the larynx, which causes them to vibrate. Learning to control this process is a key to good singing. Vibrating vocal folds create sound waves. Resonating chambers like our throat, mouth and nasal cavity help amplify our sound waves so that they are audible. Inside our instrument (us) are also hard and soft surfaces that reflect sound as well. The hard surfaces are in the roof of the mouth (hard palate), teeth and in the boney frame around the eyes and nose. The soft surfaces are in the lips, cheeks, tongue and soft palate. We are the only instrument that can shift the resonance to hard or soft surfaces or reshape the contours of the resonating chambers themselves.
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Frequency is the main property of sound waves. Frequency is how fast the wave cycles (goes up and down) per second. The human ear then translates (hears) these waves into a perceived sound also called pitch. Slow vibration… fewer waves per second (a low frequency) results in our hearing a low note. Fast vibration….more waves per second (a high frequency) equals a high note.
Every frequency has its own primary pitch. However, all frequencies also transmit other pitches called overtones. This physical reality is a central tenant of the barbershop style. We will get to those overtones in a bit.
For now, how do these elements responsible for creating sound effect our singing?
Straighten Up & Fly Right (Posture)
As a singer, we fill ourselves with air and then control the output of that air to make the notes we want. In order to gather as much air as possible, and to eliminate physical tension from affecting our sound, we must configure our body properly. For instructions on how this is best accomplished, take a look at our Posture Instruction Page.
Prepare Your Instrument (Warm-up)
Instrument, you say. What instrument? Well….that would be you. Your entire body is your instrument. Think of a cross between a bagpipe and a violin. I know that sounds like a platypus not a swan, but hear me out.
Our instrument works by filling and expelling the air in our lungs, (the bag of a bagpipe) and directing it through our vibrating vocal folds (the reed of the bagpipe). But the chanter of the bagpipe only has 8 holes to create 9 notes when played. We, on the other hand, are one of the few instruments that can create limitless pitches (the violin has no frets on its neck and can also create limitless pitches). Voila! A Bag-o-lin.
Work It On Out (Physical Warm-up)
The bag of a bagpipe was originally made of cowhide. You can imagine how stiff it would be in cold, rainy Scottish weather. To play well, the bag would have to be made more flexible by physically manipulating it. So too our instrument. Like any good athlete, we need to physically warmup before we attempt to go full out. This is essential to remove tension from our body and allow us to sing unencumbered.
Take a look at the Physical Warmup Exercises that should be done every time you prepare to sing.
The Swiss Army Knife Of Singing (Vocal Warm-up)
After warming up the large muscles of our instrument, we also need to warmup our vocal folds to allow them to move and flex with ease.
While there are a myriad of ways to vocally warmup (humming, sing up and down a scale [do, re, mi]), one of the best ways to accomplish it is using a drinking straw. You remember your mom scolding you for blowing raucous bubbles in your chocolate milk. Well….now you have permission.
What you will need is a glass or bottle of water and a drinking straw. Place the end of the straw about one inch below the top of the water. Close your lips completely around the other end of the straw. Now vocalize through the straw using scales or your favorite song. You should be able to maintain a steady amount of bubbles in the water throughout this exercise. To understand why this is one of the best ways to warmup your singing apparatus, check out the YouTube video How Do Straw Exercises Help.
This straw and water technique has several uses, as we will see in several of the sections that follow.
A Breath Of Fresh Air (Breath Control)
When a person breathes normally, the inhalation and exhalation are relatively shallow. Then, there is a short pause before the cycle starts again. That regulates the oxygen/CO2 balance needed for life and to support the limited vocal range needed to speak. As a result, we only use about five to ten percent of our lung capacity during any given breath. During singing, however, that number needs to jumps up to 50 percent.
One common tendency among new singers is to fill up with air vertically instead of horizontally. Take a big deep breath…go ahead. Did your shoulders move? If so, you are only partially filling your lungs and creating tension in your shoulder and neck that will interfere with good singing. When we inhale, our diaphragm should descend into the stomach area. The intercostal muscles of the rib cage will expand sideways resulting in an expansion around the stomach, sides and back. Take a look at YouTube video
Breath Support for Strong Clear Voice to start learning how to take a “singers breath”.
To sing well, you need to be able to control the amount of air being released without strain. Think of a hair dryer with multiple speeds. if you want a less forceful stream of air, you can choose any of the lower settings which, in turn, push out less air from the source. That is equivalent to learning to relax the intercostal muscles gradually to control your rate of exhalation. The other option is to place your hand in front of the dryer set on the highest speed and separate your fingers just enough to slow down the air flow to the desired velocity. To do that while singing is to use your vocal folds to hold back the air stream, causing tension, fatigue and possible injury. Here are some Breathing Support Exercises to help you develop the control you will need to sing well.
To get feedback on how controlled your exhalation is, we turn to that versatile drinking straw we spoke about earlier. With one end again an inch or so below the surface of the water, take a “singers breath”, close your lips around the other end of the straw and exhale slowly. The height and the sound of the bubbles created should stay consistent throughout.
Sing It Forward (Resonance)
Imagine trying to hear a guitar string plucked without the hollow body the guitar to amplify the sound. Well, the vibrations of your vocal folds would not make much noise either without the natural resonators in your throat and head. Choosing which of these resonating spaces you employ will change the sound of your voice.
For barbershop harmony, the preferred resonators are the roof of the mouth and the bones around your eyes and nose. It is called “forward placement”. Great!….but how the heck do you do that? Luckily, it’s easier than it sounds (no pun intended). If you watch Vocal Resonance: How To Get It and Sing With Forward Placement you will have what you need to start developing this skill.
Another way to focus on these resonating spaces may sound silly but is very effective. It involves our ever-present drinking straw and a glass or bottle of water. Again, place one end of the straw about one inch below the surface of the water and blow steadily. Keep the bubbles at a consistent height. Now vocalize any song (say Happy Birthday). Still keep the bubbles consistent. Concentrate on the “buzzing” feeling in your lips and around your nose. If you need a breath, breathe through your nose and continue.
After several repetitions with the straw, slide your mouth off of the straw part-way through the song (without readjusting your lips) and vocalize an “ooo”. Try to feel the same buzz as when you were using the water. That is the sensation you want with everything you sing in barbershop.
The Ring's The Thing (The Barbershop Sound)
A hallmark of the barbershop “sound” is the attention paid to musical overtones.
When you sing a note, you are actually producing many other notes at the same time. They make the original note sound “richer”, even if you don’t hear them separately, because our brain automatically combines them. Basic physics determines which overtones are being produced by each note and the fixed relationship between them.
So, if a C major chord (C, E, G) is sung, certain overtones of each note will line up perfectly with each other. The fifth overtone of the C, for example, will be exactly the same pitch as the 4th overtone of the E, the sixth overtone of the E will be exactly the same pitch as the fifth overtone of the G..… well, you get the picture. In Barbershop, this “fitting” of the pitches in a chord is often referred to as “lock”.
When this lock is achieved, you have not one but multiple voices producing the exact same overtone. This, in turn, makes that overtone louder and more apparent. If a barbershop chord is tuned just right, you will hear a “fifth voice” (the loudest of the overtones) that isn’t actually sung by anyone. This is said to be a “ringing chord” or an “expanded sound”.
Check out the video Ready, Set, Sing to see all that goes into that expanded sound. Then we will go into each element in a little more detail.
Overtone Series
Check out Overtones Explained to get a practical understanding of this critical aspect of barbershop harmony.
Vowels
When we speak we put the same emphasis on vowels and consonants. But singing is like talking, only sustained and slower. Listen to the explanation given in the musical Music Man. The secret to singing is to prioritize and hold the vowels with the consonants as simple punctuation.
How we form our vowels changes our vocal track slightly and thereby changes the sound quality of our voice. To achieve the expanded sound we are seeking in barbershop harmony, each singer must form vowels in the same way. For a more complete look at vowels, check out the You Tube video How To Sing Vowels.
And when we say vowels, singing has more sounds than the A, E, I, O, U we learned in school. In fact, some of those are actually diphthongs (two vowel sounds together) like “I” (pronounce “Ah” “Ee”).
Vowels and Diphthongs provides a guide to these various sounds and how to say them.
Pitch (Singing The Right Note)
Singing sharp (high) or flat (low) is a recurring problem with any chorus. To make a song pleasing to the ear, we need to sing quality musical notes and intervals. There are numbers of reasons that someone will be off pitch as you will see when you read Secrets of In-Tune Singing.
For insights on singing the note you want, view the You Tube video Sing On Pitch.
Fortunately, there are many new digital aids to help you hit the note you are aiming for. One of the best (but not only) is the Tonal Energy Tuner App.
Tuning A Chord (Singing The Note Right)
Tuning refers to the tiny adjustments we may have to make in the note we sing in order to create a perfect synergy with the other three voice-parts. Read What Does It Mean To Sing In Tune from the Barbershop Harmony Society to get a better understanding of this import function of our harmony style.
They refer to “Beats”, an important phenomenon that results when the frequency of notes being sung together are not the same. Take a second to watch the Beats Demo to understand the concept.
You can experience this byproduct of mismatched notes by singing along with a long held note on a Learning Track and purposefully lowering or raising your pitch. The farther apart the notes are, the faster the wobble. By adjusting your voice to eliminate this beatfrequency you can insure you are properly tuned.
Blend
In barbershop harmony, blend refers to how well individual voices combine to create a unified, balanced, and cohesive sound. It's about singers adjusting their tone, volume, and vowel sounds to match those around them, making it sound like one voice rather than a collection of separate ones. While maintaining individuality, singers strive to create a seamless and harmonious sound where the individual parts are indistinguishable within the overall texture.
Balance
Balance refers to the intentional, unequal distribution of vocal volume among the four parts (Tenor, Lead, Baritone, Bass) to create a unique, "cone-shaped" sound. Unlike traditional choral music, where voices are typically balanced cylindrically with equal weight, barbershop prioritizes a dynamic interplay where lower voices, particularly the bass, are more prominent, while higher voices sing with less intensity. This creates a fuller, richer sound with a distinct harmonic texture. Some tips on balance can be found by reading
Sing Your Story
From the moment we are born we are told stories. They captivate our minds and our attention. Why is that? Because story telling is the most effective form of communication that exists. As a chorus our goal is to enrich the lives of our audience through music. But that only happens when we take care to bring them into our musical world and engage their emotions.
Unfortunately, sometimes we are so focused on musical precision that we forget to tell our story.
Songwriters seldom write about the ordinary. When we sing, we have to find a way to imagine ourselves caught up in the world created by the song. This takes commitment and the acceptance of vulnerability.
In Sing Your Story. you will find a process for breaking down a piece of music and forging a common understanding of what must be felt and communicated.
Pitch Pipe Panic (The Pitch Pipe And You Note)
I know the feeling. Someone blows what seems like a random note on the pitch pipe. You know you’re probably supposed to find your first note from that sound but do not have a clue how to get there. Relax. There are several ways to get from there to here, but let’s detail one of the easier ones to start.
It begins by identifying the key the song is written in. Yah right! No really, it’s a piece of cake. Count the number of sharps (#) or flats (b) at the beginning of the first staff of the sheet music and look up the key in Determine The Key. The key is the note that will be sounded on the pitch pipe.
Now determine the name of the note you are starting on by using the easy instructions found in
Use this Piano Keyboard to determine the distance between the pitch pipe and your note, as detailed in Singing The Interval.
You now understand how many notes you start above or below the note blown, you can find a familiar song that uses that interval in12 Interval Songs.
Its a lot easier than it sounds. Try it!
Learning A New Song
In barbershop, we sing a cappella and without holding music. That means we have to commit our part of any song to memory. Therefore, learning a new selection can appear to be challenging, especially for those of us who don’t read music. Luckily, we have audio Learning Tracks to facilitate the process.
Review How To Really Use Learning Tracks to find a step-by-step guide used by others before you to commit new music to memory in a very short amount of time.