This isn’t your dad’s barbershop music
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(Off message alert: boop boop boop)
My sister Lynn sent me a YouTube link that seemed shareworthy. I sang in a women’s barbershop chorus for a few years, so I’m always a sucker for these sorts of things. But really, if you think that barbershop music is for geezers and wheezers, you might want to consider the amount of physical and vocal stamina it takes to do something like this. Heck, just that kinetic build-up of sound from seconds 40–60 blows your mind.
Makes me miss it. Being in the middle of a chorus of 100 or so when they build up those pitch-perfect chords and blow the roof off is like being inside of a jet takeoff, with the added bonus of your own primal scream (hopefully on-key) thrown in. Good times!
One other interesting thing about it. A friend who was in a barbershop chorus of this calibre drew my attention to the “mystery” part of it. It may sound like every one of these guys must be Josh Groban or Pavarotti or something. But actually, if you listened to them one at a time, they’re probably not much different than any decent amateur singer. These choruses are an interesting gestalt — the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Something very unique about people raising their voices in song.
Hey, I almost got back on-message. Go me!
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3 Responses and Counting...
Amazing! Barbershop is soooo cool.
s-p, who sang Stamps Baxter hymns acapella in the church of Christ for 25 years.
I’m going to have to go look up Stamps Baxter on YouTube now. But hey, anybody who’s singing acapella is one step closer to the Orthodox Church, right?
What Grace is failing to tell you is that she is an **international champion** at the barbershop stuff. Her chorus took the gold a few years back, and she’s got the medal to prove it.