barbershop singing

1. A style of singing in parts for small groups, usually four singers of the same sex (“barbershop quartets”). The notes sung by the voices are usually close to each other in pitch, resulting in “tight” chords, or “close” harmony.

Barbershop singing flourished in the early twentieth century in the United States, and barbershop groups today often prefer the songs from that period, including “Sweet Adeline” and “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi.”

Example Sentences

Dan Anthony says that in high school he sang in a “pick-up quartet,” which really is at the heart of barbershop singing.

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The series was being produced by Aengus James, a documentary filmmaker and reality-show producer who had previously made the nonfiction series “Ice Lake Rebels” and directed the doc “American Harmony,” about barbershop singing groups; he had also collaborated with Barry Levinson as a cinematographer.

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A full, rich harmony depends on each section hitting its notes clearly and precisely, a fact that singers say provides both the challenge and satisfaction of barbershop singing.

Read more on Seattle Times

In its early years, barbershop singing was pretty much a male preserve, but today both men and women perform.

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If the Armed Forces Institute has its way, the venerable art of barbershop singing will soon reach an unprecedented degree of literacy and technical perfection.

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