2023 Harmony University Frequently Asked Questions

Dates and location of 2024 Harmony University have not yet been determined. Please visit back soon for updates.

Music educators receiving continuing education hours or credits at HU can claim HU on their taxes. Check with your school district and tax advisor; some districts must preapprove HU before you can claim these hours or credits.

Barbershop directors and coaches, check the tax code in your country.

Once registration opens, you can register for HU at the HU 2024 Event Registration Page if you are attending HU in one of our eight track options. If you are attending with an ensemble, you will receive direct instructions on how to register from your ensemble’s contact person.

Note that there is BHS member and non-member pricing. If you are not a member but would like to become one to receive special pricing on events such as HU as well as other benefits, click here. At the time of registration, you may also decide to stay on campus or arrange for your own off-campus housing.

After enrolling for HU, you will be able to select your classes in March 2024.

Enrolling for classes will happen in March 2024. It will be done through a website called Sched. A detailed explanation of how to select courses will be provided when enrollment opens.

Registration is the transaction you make to secure your spot at HU. Enrollment for courses begins in Spring of 2024 when you will be able to select from the hundreds of course options. This will be done with the scheduling system called Sched.

HU is intended for adults ages 18 or older. Harmony University is located on a university campus and structured like a traditional college with unsupervised campus housing and activities. Please contact us with any questions about this policy at harmonyu@barbershop.org.

HU does not have the ability to offer housing for non-participants. HU is built as an all-inclusive event that is run on an open campus in a highly populated and popular urban area. The registration system is designed to help BHS and campus staff monitor participants and identify those who might come to campus without paying tuition.

Suggested items

• comfortable, casual clothes for 7 days in a very warm, humid place
• comfortable walking/standing shoes (especially performing groups)
• umbrella <-- a must!
• sunglasses
• toiletries (preferably in a water-proof tote)
• bar soap
• clothes hangers
• towels
• pen/pencils
• printed or electronic versions of our General Session Music
• printed or electronic versions of any handouts given by the faculty of your classes

Optional items

• bug spray
• extra blanket (a light blanket is provided)
• sunblock
• laptop or tablet
• pitch pipe
• music manuscript paper
• light jacket/sweater/sweatshirt (it sometimes gets cold in the classrooms)

Limited Single Occupancy options are available. To add a single occupancy option, select your college registration quantity, scroll to the bottom of the registration form to add on top of your general tuition. Two options are available:

• Single Occupancy Room – a single dorm-style room with a shared bathroom with another person(s). Limited to the first 50 people.

• Single Occupancy Room w/ Single Bathroom – a single dorm-style room with your own bathroom. Limited to the first 20 people.

You and your roommate will each have a bed, a dresser, and a closet. Linens will be provided and consist of bedsheets, a light blanket, a washcloth, and a small bath towel. Check out the What Should I Pack section of this FAQ list.

All rooms are air-conditioned and all rooms are ADA compliant with an elevator that goes to every floor in every residence hall.

To access your residence hall from the outside AND into each hallway, you will need the white access card which will be given to you when you check-in at your residence hall. To get into your individual room, you will use a traditional metal key, which is also provided when you check-in.

If your roommate or suitemate makes you uncomfortable for any reason, talk to the HU staff right away. In a school of almost 700 people, not everyone will get along, and we can find a solution. We don’t want you to endure a bad fit.

• Practice the General Session songs with the provided learning tracks
• Look over the materials sent to you by your instructors
• Print off any paper copied you would like to bring with you (no on-site printing is available)

There are many opportunities!

• General Sessions: We start each day singing as a group, with warm-ups, a song, and a new
• Informal Singing: This will be all over the school, at all hours of the day. Join a group or form your own.
• Formal Tag Singing: Each evening there will be specified Tag Zones where a Tagmaster will lead the Zone in tag singing.
• Woodshedding Electives: Woodshedding is where barbershop began, with 4 people harmonizing and finding new and exciting chords. It has an element of improvisation and chance.
• HU choruses: TTBB, SSAA, and Next Gen choruses
• Extreme Harmony Quartetting Brigade. This is an exciting, yet formal experience that requires an accepted application and hours of preparation.

Electives are 45-minute mini classes with a myriad of great content. Three great opportunities to attend these one-off sessions at HU:

• Daily lunchtime Electives: 1:00–1:45pm
• Monday–Tuesday evening Electives: 7:30–8:15pm
• Saturday Electives: 8:00am–1:45 starting on the hour

Students can receive graduate credit or continuing education units/clock hours by attending HU. Generally, for every 15–20 hours of content, you can earn 1 credit. As it is possible to attend over 8 hours of content each day, you can get the credits you need (up to 3 graduate credits or 4 CEUs).

In the past, graduate credit was $55/unit and CEUs were $45/unit. Price subject to change for 2023. Stay tuned to this page for more information about enrolling in this professional development opportunity.

Range

Vocal range and octave choice matter in barbershop. Traditionally SSAA singers can sing TTBB tenor or lead parts, but it may lie low. Bass and baritone parts of TTBB charts might be too low for some. Sing the part you want, but do not sing anything up or down the octave.

Sheet music

Barbershop publishers use the familiar voicings of TTBB, SATB or SSAA on the cover. However, once you open to the sheet music, all three voicings are converted to TLBB: barbershop Tenor, Lead, Baritone and Bass. Some considerations:

• In TTBB Barbershop, the vocal tenor clef is used to indicate that the parts in the treble clef are sung an octave lower. Note the subscript 8 at its bottom.
• In SSAA Barbershop, the octave bass clef is used to indicate that the parts in the bass clef are sung an octave higher. Note the superscript 8 at its top.
• SATB (mixed) barbershop is notated with a traditional treble and bass clef and does not use the vocal tenor or octave bass clef found in other barbershop arrangement voicings.
• Barbershop notation is only in two staves and all note stems for a given part go the same direction. Tenor and baritone have note stems that always go up; lead and bass have note stems that always go down.

Learning tracks

HU provides learning tracks to the General Session music. This is a common note-learning strategy for many barbershoppers, especially those who have trouble with music notation.

Singing Outside of Classes and Rehearsals

We like to sing a lot! You’ll see barbershoppers singing in hallways, in bathrooms, in dorm rooms, in the closet, out of the closet, waiting in lines, etc. You might hear singing until the wee hours of the morning!

Barbershop Performers May Freely Interpret Rhythm

Songs with moderate or fast tempi are typically performed as written. However, many slow barbershop songs and introductions are sung freely in a rubato or speech-like style. Additionally, barbershop singers will often slow down at cadence points to emphasize special harmonies.

Barbershop-specific Vocabulary

• Tenor: Tenor is the highest part, harmonizing above the lead. Notated in the top stave, tenor stems always point up. Tenor singers should have a light, lyric vocal quality, often in a head voice or falsetto.
• Lead: Lead is the second highest part, singing the melody. Notated in the top stave, lead stems always point down. Lead singers should be prominent and have a dramatic and compelling vocal quality.
• Baritone: Baritone sings above and below the lead. Notated in the bottom stave, baritone stems always point up. Baritone singers should have a lyric vocal quality. Because the baritone is constantly filling in different parts of a chord, the unusual voice leading can be very challenging, especially to the novice barbershop baritone.
• Bass: Bass is the lowest part, singing foundational notes. Notated in the bottom stave, bass stems always point down. The bass part should be as prominent as the lead, with a big, robust vocal quality.
• Tag: A tag is music that is added to the end of the song, often introducing new harmonic progressions, similar to an amen. Tags are very popular in barbershop culture as standalone musical excerpts. Because they are often taught without using sheet music, tags are a wonderful way to introduce new singers to barbershop chords in just a few minutes by ear, rather than learning an entire song.
• Hanger/Post: One of the voice parts holds one long note on a single vowel of a word, while the other voice parts change chords and words around the singer, and can be as long as 30 seconds. Ask to learn the tag “Behind” from someone at HU.
• Swipe: A glissando (slide) from one note to another. A very common embellishment in barbershop arrangements.
• Fifth Wheeling: A frowned-upon activity where a person joins a group of four uninvited by singing along. To avoid this faux pas, wait until they are done and ask if you can sing along on the part you know. They will smile and say YES!

Range

Vocal range and octave choice matter in barbershop. Traditionally SSAA singers can sing TTBB tenor or lead parts, but it may lie low. Bass and baritone parts of TTBB charts might be too low for some. Sing the part you want, but do not sing anything up or down the octave.

Sheet music

Barbershop publishers use the familiar voicings of TTBB, SATB or SSAA on the cover. However, once you open to the sheet music, all three voicings are converted to TLBB: barbershop Tenor, Lead, Baritone and Bass. Some considerations:

• In TTBB Barbershop, the vocal tenor clef is used to indicate that the parts in the treble clef are sung an octave lower. Note the subscript 8 at its bottom.

• In SSAA Barbershop, the octave bass clef is used to indicate that the parts in the bass clef are sung an octave higher. Note the superscript 8 at its top.

• SATB (mixed) barbershop is notated with a traditional treble and bass clef and does not use the vocal tenor or octave bass clef found in other barbershop arrangement voicings.

• Barbershop notation is only in two staves and all note stems for a given part go the same direction. Tenor and baritone have note stems that always go up; lead and bass have note stems that always go down.

Learning tracks

HU provides learning tracks to the General Session music. This is a common note-learning strategy for many barbershoppers, especially those who have trouble with music notation.

Singing Outside of Classes and Rehearsals

We like to sing a lot! You’ll see barbershoppers singing in hallways, in bathrooms, in dorm rooms, in the closet, out of the closet, waiting in lines, etc. You might hear singing until the wee hours of the morning!

Barbershop Performers May Freely Interpret Rhythm

Songs with moderate or fast tempi are typically performed as written. However, many slow barbershop songs and introductions are sung freely in a rubato or speech-like style. Additionally, barbershop singers will often slow down at cadence points to emphasize special harmonies.

Barbershop-specific Vocabulary

• Tenor: tenor is the highest part, harmonizing above the lead. Notated in the top stave, tenor stems always point up. Tenor singers should have a light, lyric vocal quality, often in a head voice or falsetto.

• Lead: lead is the second highest part, singing the melody. Notated in the top stave, lead stems always point down. Lead singers should be prominent and have a dramatic and compelling vocal quality.

• Baritone: baritone sings above and below the lead. Notated in the bottom stave, baritone stems always point up. Baritone singers should have a lyric vocal quality. Because the baritone is constantly filling in different parts of a chord, the unusual voice leading can be very challenging, especially to the novice barbershop baritone.

• Bass: bass is the lowest part, singing foundational notes. Notated in the bottom stave, bass stems always point down. The bass part should be as prominent as the lead, with a big, robust vocal quality.

• Tag: a tag is music that is added to the end of the song, often introducing new harmonic progressions, similar to an amen. Tags are very popular in barbershop culture as standalone musical excerpts. Because they are often taught without using sheet music, tags are a wonderful way to introduce new singers to barbershop chords in just a few minutes by ear, rather than learning an entire song.

• Hanger/Post: One of the voice parts holds one long note on a single vowel of a word, while the other voice parts change chords and words around the singer, and can be as long as 30 seconds. Ask to learn the tag “Behind” from someone at HU.

• Swipe: A glissando (slide) from one note to another. A very common embellishment in barbershop arrangements.

• Fifth Wheeling: a frowned-upon activity where a person joins a group of four uninvited by singing along. To avoid this faux pas, wait until they are done and ask if you can sing along on the part you know. They will smile and say YES!

HU is proudly and unashamedly G-rated. Members of the Barbershop Harmony Society even have a code of ethics that set expectations on the back of membership cards. Here are a few:

• We shall accept for membership only congenial persons of good character.
• We shall exhibit a spirit of good fellowship toward all members.
• We shall not permit the introduction of political, religious, or other similar controversial issues.
• We endeavor to spread the spirit of harmony throughout the world.

We ask the same of all HU attendees: be nice, encouraging, and not introduce bad energy or language to our classrooms, our meals, our dorms, and our campus. We are a caring group and we are glad you are coming to learn with us and we want all participants to feel safe.

A challenge for all involved with ensemble singing is selecting music repertoire. Barbershop singers are no exception. HU planners work very hard to ensure the general session, and TTBB, SSAA, and Next Generation songs are not religious or patriotic. Some songs, especially older barbershop arrangements, might be specifically gendered. This is not meant to be exclusive, but reflects the practice of earlier times. You are welcome to use the pronoun of your choice or neutral word in its place. If you have a concern about the repertoire choices, please reach out to us: harmonyu@barbershop.org.