Barbershop quartet in the range of the classical countertenor range. Lead (often a lower tenor) usually sings the main melody. Baritone often completes the chord with a medium voice, usually slightly below (sometimes above) the lead. Bass always sings and harmonizes the lowest notes, often setting the root of the chord for root position chords, or singing the lowest note of the chord for inverted chords. Barbershop quartet A barbershop quartet is a group of four singers who sing music in the barbershop genre of singing, which uses four-part harmony without accompaniment by any instruments such as piano, a style called a
Barbershop music Jazz musician Louis Armstrong told of having harmonized on New Orleans street corners as a boy, and NAACP executive secretary James Weldon Johnson "grew up singing barbershop harmony". English "barber's music" was described in the 17th century by Samuel Pepys as amateur instrumental music. The "Encyclopædia Britannica" considers the 19-century origins of the quartet style as "obscure", possibly referring back to barber's music, or dating to when barbershops served as community centers, where men would gather for social and musical activities with barbers traditionally being musicians. Later, white minstrel singers adopted the style, and in the early days of the