EVENTS
Why You Should Attend Guest Night
Many people get joy out of listening to music. Then there are those that experience joy from singing. Then it's even rarer to find those that excel at producing quality music. If you're not familiar with our genre of music, singing ringing chords is highly addictive. You've been warned! 🙂
Barbershop aka Barbershopping is known as close harmony or just harmony singing. It’s when only four out of all the possible vocal parts (soprano, countertenor, mezzo-soprano, tenor, lead, baritone, bass) combine to sing together simultaneously. Specifically, for the Tidelanders that means tenor, lead, baritone, and bass.
Simply put, those four parts may move together in the same place or measure of the sheet music with some degree of variation to accommodate our style of music (barbershop). Even so, the melody can (or should) always be clearly heard above all other parts.
You can read more details about what defines the barbershop style of music.
Why Should You Come To Guest Night
Here are 3 reasons why you should come to The Houston Tidelanders Guest Night.
1. You'll Have Fun!
We will get you singing quickly with other guys so you feel comfortable. You won't be sitting around listening to others sing or trying to sing while we are rehearsing. You'll get to experience harmony singing and the thrill of helping to hit those ringing chords. No wonder there's so many quartets and barbershop groups with "ring" in their name. This night is about YOU (aka our guests)!
2. We Will Teach You Songs
You will learn how to sing 3 different-length songs:
- Tags: the first and shortest is called a “tag” in barbershop music. It’s where there might be two different versions of a song ending or just the end of a song.
- Polecats: the next is a Polecat. These are relatively short songs that were selected by the Barbershop Harmony Society because they’re not too difficult to sing.
- an entire song! Lastly, we will be learning and singing a new song together!
3. We Will Help You
We won’t let you struggle with notes, pitches, vowel shapes, rhythms, or anything else. If you need help, one of us will sing for you and help you with your sticking point. Second, we will explain some of the basic music theory to help you understand the “why”. That being said, it’ll be mostly singing with minimal talking.