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Essentials in
Get Famous
Interview guide
Make the interview process easy for both the interviewer and interviewee with these key questions.
Updated: 11/3/2006 10:07:45 AM
Barbershop Harmony Society Interview Guide
This guide is intended to make the interview process easy for both the interviewer and interviewee. It contains key questions and answers about the Barbershop Harmony Society, its history, current status, membership, educational programs, and, of course, the music.
The list of questions and answers can be easily adapted to fit either the time length of the interview or the purpose of the interview. Key questions should be included in every interview.
The prevailing message that should always be conveyed in any interview is this: "Barbershop is easy, it’s fun, and you can do it." Every interview is, of course, a public relations effort, but it is also a membership recruitment effort. Arrive prepared.
Begin each interview by telling people how to contact your chapter and the Society, 1-800-876-SING (7464). Suggest they get paper and pencil to copy down the number, which will be given again at the end of the interview.
More information is available from the Society’s Marketing Department, phone 262-653-8440.
Q. What is barbershop?
A. Four-part, a cappella (unaccompanied), close-harmony singing. The melody is carried in the second voice, called the lead. The tenor harmonizes above the melody; the bass sings the lowest notes; and the baritone fills in the missing notes to complete the chord, sometimes above and sometimes below the melody.
Q. How is it different from other forms of music?
A. Aside from the melody being carried in the second voice, probably the most distinctive facet of barbershop harmony is the phenomenon known as expanded sound. It is created when the harmonics in the individually sung tones reinforce each other to produce audible overtones or undertones. Barbershoppers call this "ringing a chord."
Q. How did barbershop originate?
A. Barbershop is a uniquely American music art form, created at the turn of the 20th century by ear harmonizers, or “woodshedders,” who sang without benefit of printed arrangements. It was a time when people engaged in recreational singing. Barbershop harmony is part of the continuum of American music that growing research traces to African-American musical roots similar to those that sparked ragtime, rhythm and blues, and jazz.
Q. Was it really sung in barbershops?
A. Yes, it was. The barbershop was a gathering place for men of the community, and while they waited their turn they would often harmonize a current popular song. One of the first uses of the term "barbershop" was in a song written in 1911: "Mr. Jefferson Lord, play that barbershop chord."
Q. What is the Barbershop Harmony Society?
A. The Society was founded as the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America. It was founded April 11, 1938, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by O.C. Cash and Rupert Hall. The original lengthy name was the tongue-in-cheek creation of Cash, designed to poke fun at the alphabet soup of President Franklin Roosevelt’s many New Deal agencies. The Society is now known as the Barbershop Harmony Society.
Q. Where is the Barbershop Harmony Society today?
A. The Society headquarters is located in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but will move to Nashville in late summer 2007. Today there are more than 800 chapters across North America. With more than 30,000 members, the Society is the world’s largest all-male singing organization. In addition, there are more than 4,500 affiliates in eight foreign countries: England, Sweden, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Germany and Ireland. Barbershop harmony is sung in approximately 40 countries in the world, including Japan.
Q. Are there also barbershop organizations for women?
A. Yes, two, in fact: Sweet Adelines International (30,000 members) and Harmony Inc. (2,700 members). Additionally, there are women’s groups in England, Ireland and Holland. In fact, Sweet Adelines was formed in 1945, just seven years after the Barbershop Harmony Society was founded. Both women’s organizations are strong, independent entities.
Q. Is barbershop sung only by quartets?
A. No. Today choruses numbering from 20 to more than 150 men sing barbershop harmony. And it is from these choruses that quartets are formed. Each chapter in the Society has a chorus, and there are nearly 2,000 registered quartets.
Q. Where do Barbershoppers meet locally?
A. Include all the following information:
- Chapter name
- Chorus name
- Day, time and location of meeting
- Phone number to call for more information or a ride to the meeting
- General information about the chapter (size, awards, charitable activities and community service projects), district name and activities
- Date and location of next public performance or show
Note: The above questions should be included in any interview, regardless of length, as they cover basic information about Barbershopping, the Society and local chapter.
Q. What other events and services does the Society provide?
A. There are several, including contests, education, music publishing, Youth In Harmony (youth outreach), archives and old song library.
- Contests are held each year in the Society’s 16 districts to select chorus and quartet representatives to the international contest held each summer. Through its contest system, the Barbershop Harmony Society preserves the barbershop style. Judging is in three categories: music, singing and presentation. There is a rigorous training and certification program for all Society judges.
- The Society conducts Chapter Operations Training Seminars (COTS) in each of its 16 districts to educate chapter and district administrators. Harmony University is a week of training in all aspects of the barbershop style, chorus directing, quartet singing, vocal technique, arranging, show production, music theory, and more. The Society produces many educational videos and publishes books and manuals.
- The Barbershop Harmony Society has published more than 900 printed arrangements of barbershop music. Learning tapes/CDs also are produced for many of the arrangements to facilitate learning.
- Youth In Harmony programs bring barbershop harmony to colleges, high schools and middle schools. In co-sponsorship with Bank of America, the Society conducts an annual Collegiate Barbershop Quartet Contest, with the finals held at the international convention. Harmony Explosion Camps are held each summer for high school students and teachers. These programs are endorsed by the MENC: The National Association for Music Education and the American Choral Directors Association. Headquarters staff members make presentations to these groups annually, and conduct seminars and workshops for music educators.
- The Society’s official charity is Harmony Foundation. Harmony Foundation guides all fund raising for the Society’s benefit. It also oversees grant education and services for Society chapters and districts, helping them gain the financial means to support worthwhile projects in their communities.
- Contributions to the Foundation annual fund supports special Society projects, including Directors College scholarships, Harmony Explosion Camps and the Heritage Hall Museum of Barbershop Harmony. An endowment program helps ensure the future of the uniquely American art form of barbershop harmony.
- The collections of Heritage Hall Museum of Barbershop Harmony are housed in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The museum was opened in 1968 to collect, preserve and share the rich and varied heritage of barbershop and the Society. Through the years it has grown into an integrated resource, offering archives and collections, exhibits and research services. Currently, the collection is not on display, awaiting a larger new home.
- The Old Songs Library is believed to be the world’s largest independent collection of sheet music, second only to the Library of Congress. It houses more than 750,000 sheets of music and more than 112,000 titles. In addition, it maintains a collection of more than 1,000 unpublished barbershop arrangements.
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