DIVA’S WANTED:

 Visit an open rehearsal, Wednesdays,

 7.30pm.

JUNE

Open Evening, learn a song with us.

Harmony Inspires at The Royal Spa Centre Leaminton Spa.

APRIL

 2nd place at Regional Barbershop Prelims

MARCH

Training Day with Sally McLean

About Barbershop

Barbershop is an unaccompanied style of singing which is one of the most exciting and challenging ways for someone who loves singing to use her voice. Barbershop harmony involves four parts, and so the simplest format is a quartet of men or women. However, many people enjoy singing in a larger group with several people joining together to sing the same part. There’s nothing quite like singing in a barbershop chorus! 
The TENOR sings the high notes. The LEAD sings the tune under the tenor– this is what’s different about barbershop harmony. The BARITONE sings above or below the lead. The Bass sings the low notes.
The "ring" of barbershop chords is unmistakable. This is what makes our music so exciting to sing and to listen to. It is quite possible when things are just right for several additional notes to be heard in a chord, which are not being sung by anybody! Once you’ve heard it you’ll be hooked! Barbershop is also about entertainment. The presentation of a song is looked at as a whole, and the outcome is a treat for the eyes as well as the ears.
Getting involved with a barbershop club is a very cheap way to improve your voice! We believe that improving our ability as singers is really important and so we work on developing the craft of singing at our weekly rehearsals, at special chorus education days and at education events organised by the organisation that we belong to.
Finally, barbershop is also about friendship and fun. The spirit of harmony pervades the barbershop movement and attracts people of all ages and all walks of life.
Although we work hard to do what we do well, we never take ourselves too seriously. We are all there to have fun - and that is something we have a lot of.

Our Musical Director is Timm Barkworth who has been singing barbershop since the age of 13 and has sung in numerous male choruses and quartets around the country, including the Gold medal winning Quartet – ‘Pitch Invasion’. He also runs his own voice coaching business.

Typical Rehearsal Night

We start at 7.30pm with warm up, this can be singing funny rhymes and rounds as well as breathing exercises and stretching. While this is happening Timm takes two or three people for PVI (personal vocal instruction).  By eight o'clock, warm up complete, we rehearse the newest song in the repertoire.  We have a short break around nine o'clock and after that we rehearse a few of the repertoire songs especially if we have a singout coming up. We may also look at choreography and presentation for any of the songs. We finish with the new song again. At the end we have reminders of up coming events and general announcements followed by coffee and we all share in packing up the hall.

Social Events

The Belles organise social events, informal birthday get togethers occur fairly often as with forty members it is usually someones birthday! We have held a garden party with plant and book sales and guess the weight of the dog! From time to time a trip to a show in Birmingham or London will be arranged. Our annual dinner is in April after the prelims so we can celebrate how well we did (even if we didn't!)