Coastin Carl
💈 National BARBERSHOP QUARTET Day ORIGIN & HISTORY
National BARBERSHOP QUARTET Day is celebrated on the 11th Day in April. This commemorates the beginning of the barbershop movement. Rupert Hall and Owen Cash invited 26 men to gather for a singing jamboree on April 11, 1938. Hall was known as the “Royal Keeper of the Minor Keys”.
As time went on, songsters gathered more and more eventually leading up to the formation of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America. Since SPEBSQSA was too hard to pronounce upon reading the minutes, they now go by the harmonious title of Barbershop Harmony Society boasting almost 40,000 members.
BARBERSHOP HARMONY SOCIETY describes the genre as
“Songs with understandable lyrics and easily singable melodies, whose tones clearly define a tonal center and imply major and minor chords and barbershop (dominant and secondary dominant) seventh chords that resolve primarily around the circle of fifths, while making frequent use of other resolutions.”
Eventually, both men and women formed quartets to enter competitions. In fact, Sweet Adelines International was formed in 1945 and eventually amassed over 1200 quartets on five continents. A more diverse Harmony Inc split from the Sweet Adelines in 1959.
Barbershop quartet music is kind of like acapella music which is unaccompanied & simple vocal tunes with easy-to-learn lyrics often in ragtime arrangement. Except the emphasis is on carefully arranged harmony and word sounds with variations of tempo, volume, and phrasing.
🎶 HOW to Celebrate & Observe National BARBERSHOP QUARTET Day?
Not sure how to LOVE the day? We’ve got a few interesting ideas to consider that may help get you started.
Here are some activities that you can do on National BARBERSHOP QUARTET Day!
💙 LISTEN to the harmony
Listen to some barbershop music and learn its history. It’s quite a thing to listen to harmonious melodies that transport you back to yesteryear – seemingly back to a time when life was much simpler.
💙 COMPARE notes
Many folks who are older and younger enjoy this style of music. This is a music genre that people can appreciate which brings smiles. Use this as a topic of conversation with someone older than you. Perhaps share similarities and differences between modern-day acapella and barbershop quartets. When your parents or grandparents talk about “in my day” – do listen ’cause it might be fascinating.
💙 FUN to watch; even FUNNER to sing
This could be a fun thing to do: get some friends together either male or female, some straw hats, colorful bow ties, and sing songs you love acapella style. If four-part harmonies are suddenly your thing, there are both local and national competitions that you might check out.
💙 RAISE Social Awareness
Use social media posts with the hashtags #NationalBarbershopQuartetDay, #BarbershopQuartetDay, #BarbershopQuartet, #BarbershopHarmonySociety, #EntertainmentHolidays, #AprilHolidays, #Holiday, #FindADayToLOVE, #iHEARTdays to support the importance of celebrating, promoting, and sharing with the world why you ❤️ National BARBERSHOP QUARTET Day.
LISTEN to the sounds of the Barbershop Quartets
ACAPELLA FOR KIDS: Row Row Row Your Boat
MULTIPLE-YEAR QUARTET CHAMPIONS:
Masterpiece performing Tennessee Waltz
SIX Fun Facts you never knew about National BARBERSHOP QUARTET Day
- Barbershop quartets choose to coordinate their looks including Panama-style straw skimmer boat hats usually sporting a bright ribbon or bow.
- Barbershops in the Middle Ages shampooed their customers’ hair with used, stale urine called lotium.
- Ancient barbers functioned as priests who styled clients’ hair in order to you guessed it … keep evil spirits away as most of the world has always done.
- Only two countries outside the US have ever won the Barbershop Harmony Society’s quartet competition. Ringmasters from Sweden won in 2012 and New Zealand’s Musical Island Boys took home the trophy two years later.
- The famous Dapper Dans barbershop quartet has been performing at Disneyland since 1959, just four years after it opened.
- Barbershop quartets consist of four singers: a lead, a bass, a baritone, and a tenor. The three harmonize around the fourth!
Famous PEOPLE also born on April 10th
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James Parkinson
English physician and surgeon best known for publishing “An Essay on the Shaking Palsy” by first describing Parkinson’s disease for which it was later named after him by Jean-Martin Charcot. Born 1755.
JAMES PARKINSON Quote
“The disease, respecting which the present inquiry is made, is of a nature highly afflictive. The unhappy sufferer has considered it as an evil, from the domination of which he had not prospect of escape.”
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Ethel Kennedy
American human-rights activist best known for being the wife of Robert F Kennedy and sister-in-law to President John F Kennedy. Born 1928.
ETHEL KENNEDY Quote
Introspection! I hate it!
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Jeremy Clarkson
English broadcaster and TV presenter best known for Top Gear, The Grand Tour, and hilarious hijinks with Richard Hammond and James May. Born 1960.
JEREMY CLARKSON Quote
“Speed has never killed anyone … suddenly becoming stationary, that’s what gets you.”
Future DATES for National BARBERSHOP QUARTET Day
| Year | Date | Day of the Week |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | April 11 | Tuesday |
| 2024 | April 11 | Thursday |
| 2025 | April 11 | Friday |
| 2026 | April 11 | Saturday |
| 2027 | April 11 | Sunday |
🧑🎤 Barbershop Quartet FAQ
Who was the Barbershop Quartet in FAMILY GUY?
- The voices of the Barbershop Quartet in Family Guy are none other than voice actors Randy Crenshaw, Rick Logan, Jon & Bob Joyce.
Are Barbershop Quartets STILL a thing?
- While this sort of singing is most popular in the USA, there are several barbershop organizations that exist in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Netherlands, Finland & Sweden, Germany, South Africa, New Zealand & Australia that promote this style of singing.
What are the Barbershop Quartet HATS called?
- Why these are the famous Straw Boater Hats that politicians and stylish dandies alike wore after the beginning of the 20th century. It’s sometimes called a Skimmer or a Straw Sailor Hat. No matter what it’s called, this high-quality hat is modeled after the classic Italian boater shape. You’ll find this vintage hat hanging out in your favorite Barbershop Quartet!
Why we L💜VE National BARBERSHOP QUARTET Day
Barbershop Quartets are melodic. Songs that are performed by these singers are often recognizable and fun songs and they elicit happiness when people hear them. This harmonious sound of the barbershop quartets creates a stir and people naturally want to join in since it’s fun. The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet helps to promote this style of music so it can continue to be enjoyed. After all, when people find something that is enjoyable like barbershop quartet singing naturally, people like to join in, be a part of and listen to the music.
My father in law, Papi, explained about how he used to sing barbershop quartet style with some of his friends in his younger years. He really enjoyed doing it and to this day he still sings songs that are very nice, which to me is a similar style to the harmonious sounds of barbershop quartet style. Topics like barbershop quartets of yesteryear are ways you can reminisce, bond and learn from loved ones that are older than you.
