[From the Ontario District's newsletter, The Trillium, issue 60-02, April - June, 2006 , Waldo Redekop, editor.]
[ED: As most of you know, I am a certified PROBE judge in two of the three categories for bulletin judging. This year, as I was judging chapter bulletins that were entered into the PROBE International Bulletin Contest, I read an article by Stanley Tinkle. Credit was not given as to the source, so I contacted Dick Cote in the Fullerton Chapter as I had read about Stan in his award winning bulletin, Barbershop Clippin’s.
Stan is a member of two chapters. The following article appeared in the Orange Quartet Chapter’s Orange Squeezin’s, Dorothy Acton, Editor. I thought a quartet chapter was a great idea, something I would have liked to have tried. After all, the ‘Q’ in SPEBSQSA stands for quartets. Now that we are the Barbershop Harmony Society, I guess quartets may no longer have as big a focus, at least they don’t seem to in most Ontario District chapters.]

One singer, two chapters
 — Is it for you?

By Stanley Tinkle

In past decades, joining two Barbershop chapters usually meant that a singer was in some kind of transition. Was he living in two different cities, or was he a snow bird who spent half of his year in the north and the rest in the south? Perhaps he was of a mind to leave one chapter and was sampling the second while he decided.

In any case, a dual membership was a temporary thing. It soon simplified itself one way or the other, if only because most singers do not have the time and energy to rehearse and perform in two sets of performance and contest schedules, with duplicate sets of costumes to maintain.

Nowadays, the presence of quartet-only chapters has added a different option. Their purpose is to expand an individual’s opportunities to learn and sing songs, with three other guys. They also encourage all the singing virtues that a chorus chapter works on: blending, breath support, voice placement and the ping and the all-important emotional connection with the audience. Because that audience is a very friendly one and is sitting up close, the fourth wall is easier to break than in a darkened auditorium with a microphone.

A good quartet chapter does not make many demands on its members’ time. The Orange Quartet Chapter, for example, opens for informal rehearsals at 6 p.m... Pickup quartets gather between 6 and 7:30, when organized activities begin. Each singer present is lined up with a quartet, which goes off to rehearse a song of their choice for about 20 minutes. Then they all return to perform the song before the group. This process happens twice, usually with a second combination of singers.

Then around 9:45, the chapter reconvenes at the all-important afterglow, a parade of organized and pickup quartets which allows interested singers to perform in a dozen or more combinations. Some baris and tenors who can read music have sung in twenty or more quartets at a glow. So many songs, in so little time! Again, the purpose is to sing for the pleasure of it and to develop new skills with new songs.

New quartets spin off from this rich musical experience with great frequency. Some are able to fit their rehearsals into the Monday evening time window. Most dual members have found that the added time spent quartetting has whetted their appetite for singing.

Members who have been in champion chorus chapters such as the Masters of Harmony say that one ambitious chapter such as the MOH demands much more time and attention than does a typical chorus chapter plus a quartet chapter.

The Orange Quartet Chapter is often visited by singers who hope to form a quartet with one or more of our members. We’re pleased to see that happen, but we don’t wait for it.

The quality of the many pickup quartets in which we sing will vary, depending on the songs we know in common and the skills of each singer. If your goal is always to make the quartet produce the best possible performance, you will find each combination to be a worthwhile experience. Down the line, you will learn a large repertoire of beautiful songs and will become able to sing for pleasure in many gatherings that have only four Barbershoppers present.

Members of our chapter give their wives a standing offer to be their personal quartet, available at short notice to sing without charge at social events. It’s a small price to pay for that extra night out. Besides, happy wives make happy quartets, and vice versa.

So there you have it. If you enjoy singing in quartets and want to learn a lot of new songs, a dual membership may be the thing for you. Bring a friend from your chapter; he’ll enjoy the evening. The Orange Quartet Chapter meets every Monday at the First Christian Church, 1130 East Walnut St., in Orange, California.     k