My First Barbershop Chorus Competition

I have long had a dream of singing with a Barbershop Chorus, but I never lived where one was or had the time to devote to it before I retired. But last fall I used the Internet to find where the one in Fort Worth met.

I was a little nervous the first time I went, but without just cause. The members of the chorus greeted me warmly, gave me some music, and allowed me to get on the risers and sing along. What a feeling!! It was like no other choral experience of mine. We were on the risers for three hours with about a twenty-minute break and we were singing with great intensity. At the end I knew I wanted to try to be a part of this group.

After three or four weeks I was given an audition by one of the members. I was so nervous, I forgot the words to the National Anthem, but somehow I passed. Then the learning curve took a very sharp turn upward.

First, I had to learn the words and music of the songs for the Christmas Show. I have never been good a memorizing anything, but after many hours of listening and singing along with the demonstration CD, I was able to make it through the show without singing an unintentional solo.

Secondly, I had to learn how to sing correctly. Being an ex-football coach, I thought loud was good. And being the member of a small tenor section in my church choir, I thought I had to be heard. Wrong on both accounts. I was informed on more that one occasion I was singing too loud. I needed to blend with others and let my section carry me. The chorus had some great coaches that helped me to become a better singer. I still have a long way to go, but I am determined to continue to improve.

At the start of the new year we got the music we were planning on singing at the Division contest in March and the learning continued. There was an added incentive to do well because this is the first step in getting invited to the International contest in July of ’07.
So the work began. I didn’t have any idea there was that much involved. There were notes and words, singing correctly, developing a better sound, having expression on your face, and knowing all the moves for the songs. But the most important thing was learning to sing from the heart and expressing that feeling to the audience.

It was very intense training. The people in my church choir could not believe how hard we worked when I told them about the three-hour rehearsals, the all day Saturday practice on just two songs, and the extra hours spent on choreography. But I loved it. I didn’t know such hard work could be so much fun.

Finally the weekend for the competition arrived. My wife and I attended the quartet contest on Friday night and it was great. Quartets from our chorus did a fabulous job. The first through the fourth place quartets all had at least one member of our chorus in them.
I was excited to see what would happen the next day.

The next morning as we went through our warm-up, it took me back to the feel of a locker room before a big game. There were reminders of important things to do, a coach’s last minute pep talk, encouragement from teammates, and a quiet confidence that if we did our best the results would be what we wanted. The wait for our turn to sing was like waiting for the kick-off, butterflies in the stomach, nervous energy, and a “let’s get this going” feeling.

Then finally the introduction by the MC and Phil turned around and we launched into the first song. At that point I experienced an unexpected feeling of pride. We were fifty-one guys all with the same goal in mind. It was an overwhelming feeling of teamwork. We were depending on each other, focusing on our leader, and executing what we had worked on for weeks. You could feel that the audience was experiencing the emotions that we were trying to get across. As we finished the song there was a great sense of accomplishment and the applause that we heard confirmed it. The second song brought about the same kinds of feelings.

Then the wait for the scores began and as I sat listening to the remaining choruses, I thought, “Man they are good. Are they better that we were?” What if we didn’t win this contest? Then the MC started reading off the place of finish from the lowest score to the highest and as he got to second place I held my breath. He called out the name of another chorus meaning that we had to be first. What a relief. What a great feeling to be named the Champion Chorus. We had achieved our goal we were the best.

Back in the warm-up room the scores from the different judges were coming in and one was lower than we felt we deserved. It took the edge off the excitement, but it still did not diminish the feelings of camaraderie and pride in my chorus that I had. I looked at it like I did when we used to overcome a bad call by an official to go ahead and win the game. We had overcome the bad call of a judge by our good play (singing) to win the championship.

That night at the Show of Champions it was a real honor to be announced as the Champion Chorus. The crowd roared their approval of the judges’ choice. Once again I was overwhelmed with pride to be part of such a unit. But then as we finished the night of singing by uniting with another chorus for the final two numbers, I began to realize that maybe there was more to the Barbershop Harmony Society than just pride in your chorus. It is a collective pride in all the guys that love to make music. Wouldn’t the world be better place if the goal of everyone on earth were to “Keep the Whole World Singing”.

Thanks to Phil, Tom, Col and all chorus members for making my first competition such a memorable experience. I am looking forward to many more.