Barbershop Harmony is a musical form derived from the intersection of African-American harmonies with melodic structures from late 19th Century minstrel songs through those written for vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, and New York Broadway theatre. It started as four-part ear harmony in southern and Appalachian US barber shops, with one voice below the melody (bass), one by unchanged boy voices above the melody (tenor), and one singing missing notes not sung by the others (baritone). It has developed into a more formal structure with written arrangements – as we used in workshops the past few years – but there is still plenty of ear singing, and that is what we will be doing in this year's workshop, learning "tags" (musical codas) by ear in order to learn how to sing barbershop.

Charles has been a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society for 35 years, almost 25 of which as a member of the San Francisco Cable Car Chorus, where he served as President in 2007. He has sung barbershop harmony in choruses with the Oakland/Berkeley, Bay Area Metro Choruses and Voices In Harmony choruses. He has also sung in several quartets, including the Jack London Squires, San Andreas Faults, Grounds Four Da Voice (mixed), Top of the Mark, and Time Be Four (still active). Charles was Assistant Director of the SF Cable Car Chorus for fifteen years and front line Director since 2008. He attended Director's College in 2006 and 2008, and is also an arranger.

For more information on joining a chorus:

Male voices: www.sfcablecarchorus.org (San Francisco)
Male voices: www.ndchorus.com (Hayward)
Male voices: www.barbershop-harmony.org (Palo Alto)
Female voices: sfsoundwave.net (San Francisco)
Female voices: www.missionvalley.org (South Bay)