FAQ

A: Contact our Marketing Team at [email protected]. We can provide entertainment for a variety of functions and time frames. We'll be happy to work with you on a solution for your entertainment needs!

A: We welcome all visitors! If you're a singer and looking for a home, there will be times when you may join us on the risers. We rehearse every Thursday at 7:00pm unless otherwise noted in the calendar. For directions to our rehearsal location, click here.

A: If you're interested in joining Atlanta Vocal Project, our audition process can start on your first visit. The process is clearly defined here. There are many factors that determine whether a prospective member passes the audition. Of course we are looking for people who can carry a tune. But, more than that, we want to make sure your voice will fit into - and add to - our ensemble sound. The audition process is meant to allow you to see what we're looking for and for us to see if you're a good match.

A: Ah yes, money. We are officially the Atlanta Metro Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. We are one of the chapters in the Southeastern Harmony District, one of seventeen districts in the Society. There are chapter dues, district dues, and society dues. All of these come to approximately $250 per year with heavy discounts offered for youth under 26. In addition to dues, new members will need to purchase our performance uniform, approximately $250. We have ways to help any member who cannot meet the monetary outlay and we hope that no one would fail to join for financial reasons.

A: Yes there are. As members of the BHS, we attend up to 3 conventions each year where we compete against other choruses from the District and around the world. The District has a spring and a fall convention that take place over a weekend. These can take place anywhere within the District (Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi). If we qualify, we also compete at the Society's international competition that takes place during the week of July 4 each summer. This competition takes place in cities within the USA and sometimes Canada. You will be expected to attend approximately 4 or 5 days. Attending these conventions (competitions) requires travel, hotel, meals, and convention registration expenses. Many members share travel and hotel expenses where they can.

A: All members of the chapter have access to the sheet music and "MP3 learning files" for the songs in our repertoire. The music and learning files are available from the "members only" section of our website. We will provide you with an account and login once your membership is approved.

Most of our members commit the songs to memory by listening repeatedly to the learning files as they drive around town in their cars, or in the comfort of their home.

We do provide some level of assistance with the learning process at rehearsals, but we expect our members to learn the words and notes to our songs outside of the rehearsal and come to rehearsal prepared to sing and bring the songs to a musical level appropriate to perform for an audience.

A: For a complete list of the administrative and musical leadership, look at this page. You can click on the individual's name to send them an email.

A: The mission of the Atlanta Metro Chapter is to popularize barbershop harmony and other forms of a cappella singing.

• We serve our members by sharing fellowship, performance skills and leadership development, encouraging individual personal growth as we strive to perfect our craft.
• We serve singers as a chapter through our support of vocal music education.
• We serve audiences as a chorus, Atlanta Vocal Project, through public performances offering an uplifting, wholesome variety of a cappella musical entertainment.
• We serve and build better communities, bonding diverse people through the pure fun of a cappella harmony as we "Keep the Whole World Singing!"

A: The Barbershop Harmony Society is devoted to promoting, preserving, and enjoying a special form of harmony known as barbershop. But what makes a particular song or arrangement "barbershop-able"? What's the difference between barbershop and doo-wop, jazz, madrigal, and other a cappella music?

Technically speaking, barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied singing with three voices harmonizing to the melody. The lead usually sings the melody, with the tenor harmonizing above the lead. The bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes and the baritone provides in-between notes, either above or below the lead to make chords (specifically, dominant-type or "barbershop" sevenths) that give barbershop its distinctive, "full" sound.

Probably the most distinctive facet of barbershop harmony is the phenomenon known as expanded sound. It is created when the harmonics in the individually sung tones reinforce each other to produce audible overtones or undertones. Barbershoppers call this "ringing a chord." Singing in a quartet or chorus and creating that "fifth voice" is one of the most thrilling musical sensations you'll ever experience.

A: With 30,000 members in the U.S. and Canada, the Barbershop Harmony Society is one of the world's largest singing organizations. It is comprised of more than 800 choruses and 1800 quartets throughout the U.S. and Canada. Eight affiliated organizations around the world add another 3300 members to the count, and the 33,000 members of women's organizations such as Sweet Adelines International and Harmony, Inc. bring the total number of barbershop singers to nearly 70,000 worldwide.

The Local Chapter: Chapters meet regularly each week and are the Society’s basic organizational unit. Qualifications for membership are described in the international bylaws, and each chapter screens its applicants for membership within the provisions of that document. The chapter provides an environment in which men can enjoy fellowship and the thrills of barbershop harmony.

The Districts: For administrative convenience, the Society is divided into seventeen geographic districts. Each district is run by elected officers who promote the best interests of the chapters and conduct quartet and chorus contests within the district.

The Society as a whole: The Barbershop Harmony Society is governed by an elected Board of Directors, which sets policy, budget and dues, and laws and regulations for the organization. The Society Board is assisted by numerous volunteer committees, comprised of Barbershoppers willing to share their special expertise for the good of the organization. Day-to-day operations of the Society are under the direction of the Executive Director, who is responsible for overseeing the headquarters office staff. The Harmony Hall staff publishes and distributes music and the Society’s bi-monthly magazine, The Harmonizer, and organizes the annual international convention and midwinter convention. It also publishes manuals on the subjects of chapter operation, barbershop craft, stagecraft, quartet promotion, script writing, music arranging, chorus development and a wide variety of other educational topics.

The headquarters office staff supervises a harmony education program to keep its members informed. It also produces barbershop harmony recordings for education and entertainment and maintains an audio-visual education program.