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Essentials in
Quartet Singing
Five Quartet Singing Talents
Some truths are unchanging. This 1963 piece by the legendary Lou Perry outlines the fundamental skills every quartet singer ought to possess.
Updated: 4/24/2006 11:47:46 AM
We are all amateurs, which means we are doing something we love. We love to sing barbershop harmony. As Bob Johnson has stated on numerous occasions, most of us are not singers, but because we love to sing, we constantly strive to sing better so that eventually we may be able to sing for the pleasure of other people. Very often efforts toward this end result in men finally becoming singers. There is no better basis for the success of your quartet than this "best of all reasons for singing."
There are other elements, however, which have an important part in determining how far your quartet can go. They are commonly referred to as talents, some of which we all have in varying degrees. They are discussed below in the order of their importance.
1. A musical ear
This talent involves the ability to mentally hear pitches, intervals and related musical sounds accurately. It does not imply any knowledge of musical theory or the ability to read music (visual identification). Like all talents, this one improves with practice so that reaction to pitch patterns is quickened. Unfortunately, a sensitive musical ear cannot be created. If you do not have one, you had better take up golf or some like pastime. You do not belong in a singing society - unless of course you have remarkable administrative talents which might be used to implement the efforts of the singers.
2. Intelligence
Singing is primarily an exercise of the mind, not the body. Explaining singing in anatomical terms makes you think of anatomy instead of singing. Physical difficulties in singing are ones you put there yourself, such as strain, poor posture and abuse of the apparatus, etc. The only muscle not relaxed is the brain muscle. We use our innate intelligence to remove hurdles and to fortify our unique and individual strong points. Here is where intelligence is needed to concentrate on the job requirements of the various voice parts. We have to think about the sound being produced, and how this sound can best be made to come to the aid of the other three parties in this joint effort.
We are called upon to weigh, balance, and make judgments in split seconds; to create ideas on the spur of the moment in order to keep a song alive; and to maintain the various tools we use under stricter discipline than in any other form of singing. We need to use our brains, gentlemen, every minute we are singing. As a lagniappe, the more we use them, the better they get, and we get, and singing gets.
Singing without thought is mere sound, and even though generating sound is one of the most distinctive characteristics of our musical form, it is meaningless unless it is applied with conscious mental effort to the end of developing the idea of a song and making that idea great enough to share with an audience.
3. Vocal Equipment
Except for the lead, who should have some characteristics of what is usually referred to as a "voice," with strength, lyricism, and controlled vibrato for added color, the first two talents are more important. A good mind and ear can improve an average voice, but a voice with no guiding intelligence very often deteriorates.
Voices in general are not fully formed until about age twenty-four. Young voices can be ruined for life by forcing them into a form they are not yet fitted for, especially in the lower registers. We should be most careful, then, to encourage interest in young people by letting them sing only material adapted to their capacities.
A good musical tone begins with the controlled expiration of breath in a balanced and relaxed body. The kind and quality of tone depends on what you mentally want to hear. Try singing a note at a comfortable pitch. Sing the same note another way. Which do you like better? With practice, you can learn to make any kind of tone you want until, at will, you can furnish the sound that suits the current need of the quartet. In short, you set the standard of what you want to hear. The sound is you. By coincidence, the more you concentrate on the sound image, the more relaxed you become and the better you sing.
Very little of music was written to show off voices. What we can bring to music to better present the idea of the composer is the important thing, and because we love to sing, we will try to bring a well-disciplined tone, guided by intelligence.
4. A Sense of Rhythm
Because of the limited number of notes in the diatonic scale, there are only about a dozen basic melodies possible. (See "Sigmund Spaeth, Tune Detective.") These few melodies are made to sound like many different ones by stretching or compressing them over a variety of rhythmic patterns. In short,' rhythm’ gives the melody both form and motion. It may demand that we stay in one place, like soldiers marking time; or that we ride it forward on the melody, making the melody walk, dance, stroll, run, fly, and even fall down.
The rhythmic pattern is named in the time signature. It tells what the basic pulsation will be. To a large degree, the bass in your quartet will decide when the pulsation must be pronounced or implied, regular or free, accelerated or retarded, according to the motion requirements of the song. The lack of rhythmic talent in a quartet makes for pedestrian songs. Coupled with a lack of talent number five below, a song can be stopped stone-cold dead.
5. Word Sense
Singing on vowels produces sound. Singing on words makes sound with meaning. Song lyrics are words put on notes to express an idea or tell a story. Barbershoppers sing songs, especially ones that tell stories. Might we not then more properly sing even exercises like scales and warm-up vocalizing on words as they are sung. The very least it could do would be to help loosen our tongues and relax our jaw muscles.
The song lyric should be studied, analyzed, and learned to the point where we can visualize and describe the idea of it as a unit. We will thereby gain a better understanding of what attitude to take toward the notes themselves, no matter how low or high.
The interpretation of a song is affected by the ability to read and understand the lyric. This "word-sense" cannot be taught as such. And, well it shouldn't for this is the area where individual personality has widest scope. A song is arranged according to the mental attitude toward the words. Phrasing, shading and emphasis, together with all other elements of interpretation, depend on this talent. The written arrangement is only the vehicle you use to make the song your own. When you succeed, the result is a great arrangement.
Conclusions
Find three other guys and get going! With the continued development and discipline of the above talents, a true barbershop quartet emerges, with a Style all its own.
It will have a distinctive Sound, and will nurture an image reflecting the collective Taste inherent in its members.
Few quartets are fortunate enough to possess all the above talents to a high degree, which opens the door for outside help. The help might come from a voice teacher, a coach, a category judge-coach, a HEP team member or someone of goodwill who is knowledgeable enough to give you what you need without destroying what you have.
In closing, may I offer one other opportunity to quartets who decide to sing for the pleasure of other people. Listen for the effect on your audience while you are singing…for attention, receptivity and empathy — instead of what they say or do after you have sung.
Applause is not always the criterion of a good performance, but how sweet it is!
--30—
[ Note: Wally Cluett recently shared this piece. "This is the fifth article of a series on the quartet voice parts done for the District Newsletter “The Nor’easter” in 1963," Wally writes. "Lou Perry, Bob Dunning and I attended the first Society HEP School in 1962 in Winona, Minn. and the NED/HEP was formed when we returned. This effort began an active identifying of men in the District who wanted to achieve musical excellence through quartetting and the Four Statesmen were just one culmination of our efforts to get the men to look beyond their own chapters when forming a quartet.
"This article from Lou kicked off the series and Burt Szabo suggested that I send it on to you as a possible inclusion in the Harmonizer. Lou and I kept an active correspondence over the years and in reading what he wrote, it seemed to me that his words still ring as true today as they did so many years ago when he first penned them...
"I miss him dearly, ]"
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