Chord worshipping is for geeks

Chord Worshipping!  If you’re an initiated barbershopper, you know what it is – reveling in that lock and ring that is the trademark of the style, but more than that, chord worshipping is making the performance about the lock and ring instead of the song.  For a fanatic close-harmony fan, it’s like a siren call – just hold that beautiful, overtone-expanded chord for a few more seconds!  Make that ultimate note go 20 seconds, 25 seconds… aaaaah, yeah!  What could be wrong with that?

I guess it’s a matter of perspective.  If you’re only trying to please yourself and your cadre of barbershop geeks, there’s nothing wrong with chord worshipping at all.  So have at it!  Fill your boots.  But if you’re trying to reach outside the barbershop bubble and make an impact with the general public, you’re going to need a little more.

Geek isn’t a bad word, by the way!  Twenty years ago a “computer geek” was an outcast, a nerd, a loser.  But today those same geeks have a prestigious place in Society.  Geekdom isn’t the same as being a loser.  It’s another word for “expert” or “aficionado” – someone who loves the technique of his craft enough to dig into it fully, and loves the technique itself not as a means to an end, but as the goal.  I imagine that figure skating geeks love to attend the compulsory figures, and they have probably developed a whole language that the rest of us would not understand, to describe the beauty and regularity of a perfect figure 8, and the way an expert figure skater shifts his weight.  I don’t know, it’s not my field, but I bet you anything they have their own language.  Just like “swipes” and “tiddlies” and “scissors” and “hangers” and “posts” and “rubs” and “Chinese sevenths” are terms that every tag singer can trot out at will.  Tag singers are geeks!  I’m a major geek myself.

The trouble only comes up when we want to sing for people who are not geeks, who don’t love the ring of the chords just for the ringing.  They want to hear music with all its emotional depth.  Anything less leaves them cold.  They watch a typical barbershop show and walk away thinking “why did they sing the endings so loud all the time?  That was weird…”  They just don’t “get it” and they never will - you can’t expect them to.

On a broader scale, allowing ourselves to be happy with musical geekdom alone makes the barbershop community insular.  Understanding the culture is a badge of membership, but it can also be a huge barrier between us and the ticket-buying public.

If you’ve been reading this blog for long, you already know the antidote – if you want to impress the public, make sure the story is king, and those great ringing chords are kept in the proper perspective.