Welcome to the world of Barbershop singing. This web site is the central web site for The British Association of Barbershop Singers (BABS) and here you will find everything you need to know about Barbershop harmony singing in the UK.
BABS holds its national convention in May every year when all the choruses and quartets from all over the UK meet to celebrate this wonderful hobby. There are two major competitions - one for the choruses and one for quartets.
Barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied vocal music characterised by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture.
The melody is consistently sung by the lead, with the tenor harmonising above the melody, the bass singing the lowest harmonising notes, and the baritone completing the chord.
Barbershop singers adjust pitches to achieve perfectly tuned chords in just intonation while remaining true to the established tonal centre.
Artistic singing in the Barbershop style exhibits a fullness or expansion of sound, precise intonation, a high degree of vocal skill and a high level of unity and consistency within the ensemble. Ideally, these elements are natural, unmanufactured and free from apparent effort.
Barbershop music presentation uses appropriate musical and visual methods to convey the theme of the song and provide the audience with an emotionally satisfying and entertaining experience. The musical and visual delivery is from the heart, believable, and sensitive to the song and its arrangement throughout. The most stylistic presentation artistically melds together the musical and visual aspects to create and sustain the illusions suggested by the music.
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