It's like a natural high as the sound reverberates through your body, giving a boost to your senses!

This is the power of barbershop singing, according to Tauranga's Erica and David Walpole, who are part of their own men and women's barbershop singing groups. 'It's like a drug and it's so good for your health,” says Erica. 'With barbershop you get a chord with four parts, four notes and when you get them right you get what they call an overtone and the chords ring, and you can hear it ringing and it goes right through you.”

Members needed

Despite the wondrous resonant feeling that barbershop singing gives, Erica says: 'We're only just existing”.

Erica's women's group ‘Keynotes' is down to 13 members. 'Our members have dropped over Covid-19,” says David. His men's group, ‘Harmony-a-plenty' used to have 20 members – now they're down to six. 'We haven't even got a hall or a venue…we've still got some money but we haven't got surpluses.”

So they need the numbers to keep the music alive, with hopes to see their memberships get into the 20-plus range. 'You can have a barbershop quartet with just four people but our groups are bigger than that, so it needs four parts so you get the harmony,” says Erica.

Sing outs

Both Keynotes and Harmony-a-Plenty do regular ‘sing outs' for the community. 'We go into the resthomes and retirement villages, and give an hour's entertainment pretty regularly,” says Erica. 'We sang at the Mount with about 20 young mothers at their hen's party. It was a joyous occasion,” says David.

'The lads often get Valentine's Day requests too – and I was lucky enough to be serenaded by Harmony-a-Plenty, performing ‘Breaking up is hard to do' by Neil Sedaka. The delightful acapella sounds make it hard to keep a smile off your face,” says Erica.

These barbershop boys are hoping to get members up in time for the Barbershop Harmony New Zealand's Pan Pacific Convention in September. If you'd like to try barbershop singing for yourself phone David on 07 576 0578. Keynotes meets Thursdays from 7pm-9.30pm at the Wesley Church, 13th Ave, Tauranga City.