The purest sounds you'll ever hear

Are you a closet singer? I don't mean do you sing in a closet [maybe you do but I'm not going there]. I mean do you sing all the time? Do you sing in the car? In the shower? At the water cooler? Driving your cart up and down the aisles of the grocery store? Can you carry a tune from here to there without the aid of a musical instrument or karaoke track? Are you dying to have someplace where you can really sing out without drawing bewildered stares? Then maybe I have just the ticket for you.

Have you ever considered Barbershop harmony? It's easy. It's designed for the average singer. It's divided into four parts depending on the natural range of your voice. You don't have to be able to read music. It covers musical styles from the 1800s to the present. And the best thing is that Barbershoppers will teach you everything you need to know while making you part of the Barbershop family.

You probably didn't know it but there are Barbershoppers all around you. Most cities have at least one Barbershop chorus or quartet within driving distance. It used to be one of the best kept secrets in the world but Barbershop has spread all over the world and can be found almost anywhere.

In North America, there are two main Barbershop outfits - one for guys and one for gals. If you're a guy you'll want to go here:

www.spebsqsa.org

and check out The Barbershop Harmony Society. If you're a gal you'll want to go here:

www.sweetadelineintl.org

and visit Sweet Adelines International. Both these groups have members everywhere just waiting to take you on a journey of musical discovery like nothing you've ever experienced before.

And if you are outside of North America, you'll find plenty of starting points in your neck of the woods, too. You can start looking here:

http://www.harmonize.ws/links/index.cfm

at The Ultimate Barbershop Links page. If they haven't got it, it doesn't exist. [grin]

In any case, this could be the most fun you've ever had. It's a family and it's family-oriented. The only four-letter words you find in our music are words like: love, moon, June, etc.

This blog is going to be my attempt to bring Barbershop to yet another corner of cyberspace and spread the word: "Singing is life! The rest is just details."