On Wednesday 19th April The Barberettes held their Fizz and Sing social event which invited interested ladies to come and see what we get up to every Wednesday evening as well as hear us sing some of our repertoire, join us in learning a new song and then enjoy a glass of bubbly - alcoholic and non.

On this occasion we were joined by 7 lovely ladies who participated in one of our physical warm ups which included doing The Gay Gordon - named after a famous Scottish army regiment (Gordon Highlanders), and is a very popular couples ceilidh dance.

Emma, our MD, then introduced the ladies to our four sections - Baritone, Bass, Lead and Tenor - and the pitches that they sing at. To show the for parts in action the chorus then sang one of their favourite Christmas songs ‘The Boar’s Head’ before doing some basic chord work with the visiting ladies joining the chorus on the risers.

To get the memory gears working the chorus introduced the ladies to the ‘12345’ song - the concentration level was very high! - before singing what we call ‘The Amen Song’ in various rounds. 

Once Emma had exhausted the ladies with our various warm ups both the chorus and visitors got down to some serious work and started learning our new song ‘Good Vibrations’ by The Beach Boys. We initially started learning it altogether to see how far we could get before splitting into four parts to rehearse for a while which actually helped as sections were able to work on various areas they were struggling with. When the four sections eventually came back together things went more smoothly and we made some good progress. 

After that, while the visiting ladies enjoyed their well earned fizzy refreshments the chorus sang a few of our current songs and totally mucked up the new moves to ‘You Can’t Stop The Beat’ much to their amusement! Shame we didn’t get this part on video ?

All in all it turned out to be a good evening although 4 of the ladies seemed to want to stick to the tenor section so it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks.

If you would like to give us a go you don’t have to wait for our next social event. All you need to do is come along to any of our Wednesday evening rehearsals at St Nicolas Church, Earley from 7.30pm till 10pm. For more information or to hear more about what we do or even hire us to sing at an event please get in touch with Jo Poulter on 07917 205605 or email her at thebarberettes@gmail.com