Here you’ll find how a few of our members got in to this strange hobby of ours and what they get out of it.
Tony – Bass
After a working life of 40 years mainly spent at sea I had decided that when I retired I wanted to sing. I joined a choir, but it wasn’t really for me.
My wife saw that a barbershop chorus was being started and I got in touch straight away. I had always said I would love to be able to sing barbershop. I’m still here four years later and love it.
To learn the songs you have learning tracks, one for each part, so I can just play the piece I am learning over and over until I have it. (Usually when the missus is out, for obvious reasons!). I don’t read music but that doesn’t matter.
The fine tuning is done at our practice evenings. I love being with a gang of blokes of all ages. It is a safe space so we chat about anything and everything, sometimes even when we aren’t supposed to be!
We do have gigs which I really enjoy as it gives an objective for all the work we put in and we get better the more we perform a song. Our practise is held above a pub so it’s great to have a pint afterwards and often end up entertaining the locals too. There is something magical about a load of different voices singing four different parts with no accompaniment, and when it’s right it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
Why don’t you come along and have a go? Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I’m looking forward to meeting you.
Andy – Baritone
I enjoyed singing from a young age – solo with a guitar or with a few others doing basic harmonies and oohs and ahhs. Somehow I ended up at a “Singing for Chaps” workshop in Hull where John Rushforth (Chair of our Club) stood up and told us about a Barbershop Chorus that had recently started. I went along, and the first time I heard some of the members informally singing in a quartet, I was captivated.
Singing in a chorus in 4 parts using material written in the Barbershop style (which is all about the “ringing chords”) is quite different to anything I’d tried before. The parts come together in chords, punctuate with pick-ups and triumph with tags (the mad bits at the end of some songs!).
If you like singing you need to try Barbershop!