Knowra Barbershop music Barbershop music Barbershop music is a style of a cappella singing built around close four-part harmony, ringing chords, and a melody usually carried by the lead voice.
Barbershop seventh chord : A dominant seventh chord voiced and tuned in the close harmony characteristic of barbershop singing. Its strong overtone relationships help create barbershop’s ringing sound.
Four-part harmony : Music in which four distinct vocal or instrumental lines sound together as harmony. Barbershop organizes its signature texture around four simultaneous voice parts.
Minstrel show : A nineteenth-century American stage entertainment built around racist caricature and blackface performance. Minstrel-show song conventions formed part of the musical context in which early barbershop singing developed.
Barbershop chorus : A large vocal ensemble that sings barbershop arrangements in four-part harmony. Choruses adapt the quartet sound for massed, coordinated performance.
Gospel quartet : A small vocal ensemble performing gospel music in close harmony, often with expressive lead singing. Both use close vocal harmony, but gospel quartets follow distinct sacred traditions and performance conventions.
Overtone singing : A vocal technique that makes one overtone stand out alongside a sung fundamental pitch. Barbershop singers tune chord tones to reinforce audible upper partials.
Close harmony : Harmony in which neighboring voices sing pitches that lie relatively near one another. Closely spaced notes give barbershop chords a compact, blended sound.
Ragtime : An American musical style marked by syncopated melodies, especially popular around the turn of the twentieth century. Ragtime-era popular songs became part of the repertoire early barbershop singers harmonized.
Barbershop contest : A judged competition in which barbershop ensembles perform for musical and presentation scores. Contests reward the blend, tuning, expression, and precision central to the style.
Doo-wop : A vocal popular-music style featuring group harmonies, syllabic backing vocals, and rhythm-and-blues influences. Doo-wop also centers vocal harmony but uses different rhythmic and stylistic conventions.
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