Zen and the Art of Barbershop

OR Tuning Your Music Machine … Online!

If you happen to have read the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, you might remember the difference between romantic and classical modes of thinking. In his book, Robert Pirsig explains how romantics prefer to see machines as magical, mystical "black boxes" powered by arcane technologies, while classicists prefer to develop an intimate knowledge of how machines work. Pirsig emphasizes that both approaches to life are valid: with both romantic and classical schools of thought, a person can have a rich appreciation for the machine. (Bear with me, barbershoppers—I do have a point.)

The big difference comes when the machine breaks down. Because of his carefully cultivated mechanical knowledge, the classical thinker can diagnose the problem, troubleshoot the system, and repair the part or parts that caused the breakdown. The romantic, on the other hand, has to rely on someone else to get the machine fixed.

Obviously, Pirsig is not just talking about motorcycles, or machines in general. So what's my point here? Well, a few months back I was teaching the "Aura Lee" tag to my chorus back in Indiana, and I said something like, "Okay, leads, you're starting on the third here," and one of the leads said something like, "That would really help if I knew what a third was." I'm pretty sure the comment was meant as a joke, but the more I thought about it, the more obvious it became. How much would it help if all of us in the Society knew what a third was?

Not everyone in our Society has had the benefit of a formal musical education. Some of us never learned to read music. However, I believe that it benefits us both individually and as a group when we all get a little more "classical" about our hobby. Sure, we sing for enjoyment, but even just a basic knowledge of some musical fundamentals—and especially music reading—can significantly impact the quality of our singing, as well as our enjoyment of the music we sing.

I believe that there are a few basic musical skills that every singer—barbershopper or otherwise—can and should develop. At the very least, every singer should be able to:

• identify and name of the notes on both the treble and bass clefs
• understand sharps, flats and naturals and how they affect pitch
• identify and understand key signatures
• know basic chord building
• tell the difference between major and minor keys and chords
• know terms like "tonic," "root," "3rd," "5th" and "7th" and what they mean
• identify a barbershop 7th chord, since (like the Hokey Pokey) that's what it's all about

If everyone in the society developed just these few skills, it would dramatically shorten the time it takes us to learn new songs. If everyone knew the basic structure of a chord, it would greatly increase our accuracy with opening chords and pitches. Being able to figure out where each note fits into a chord would help us improve our tuning.

I didn't become a barbershopper to learn musical theory. I got in because of the joy of the "machine" of sound that creates that unique visceral reaction to the harmonies. I became a barbershopper because I became addicted to that electric sensation when a chord locks in tight, the overtones spring like a rainbow over our four-part sound, and every hair on the back of every neck in the room stands on end. We unconsciously manipulate the physical properties of sound when we sing. A little more technical knowledge would help us fine-tune that musical engine, and get from it a better performance. Even more important, this technical knowledge will turn us into "musical mechanics" who can fix problems with our singing as they arise.

Okay, so what can you do to improve your own knowledge of music?

Just turn on your computer. The Internet is a wonderful place, and some very nice people have put together some tutorials that will anyone with a web connection to learn more about music. The following are great resources for beginners who want to start learning how to read music:

Ricci Adams' Musictheory.net

Datadragon Introduction to Reading Music

The Basics of Reading Music

The second and third sites are both good, but for my money, you can't find a better site to help you make that jump from romantic to classical that Ricci Adams' MusicTheory.net. This site has a series of professionally animated lessons that start from the very beginning (a very good place to start) and build on each other to present a thorough introduction to basic music theory. Even those of us with some formal musical education can benefit from some of the information contained there. No matter what your skill level is, I'd highly recommend a visit to the site.

The success of both youth and adult literacy programs across the country indicate that both young and old dogs can learn new tricks. I hope that other members of our Society can do the same. Many of the songs we sing are romantic, but that doesn't mean our thinking has to be!

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