A Guide for Music Educators

The barbershop scoring system is a little bit different from what you might find at a standard
choral festival. Rather than a panel of judges judging the exact same way with the exact
same adjudication sheets, our scoring judges are trained and certified in only one of three
different categories. Each judge goes through a rigorous three-year training process (at his
expense) to become certified, and must re-certify every three years by attending a categoryspecific school. The three categories are Music, Presentation, and Singing.
Music judges the song and arrangement, as performed. Judges do not have copies of the
music in front of them during your performance, and are judging solely what they hear. This
allows you the liberty to make modifications in voicing, small and appropriate lyric or
rhythm changes, and even compose different introductions or tags (codas) to the song. Music
judges adjudicate the musical elements in the performance: melody, harmony, range and
tessitura, tempo and rhythm and meter, construction and form, and embellishments. They
judge how well the musical elements of the performance establish a theme and the degree to
which the performance demonstrates an artistic sensitivity to that theme. They also adjudicate
the degree to which the musical elements of the song and arrangement display the hallmarks
of the barbershop style.
Presentation evaluates how effectively a chorus brings the song to life; that is, the
believability of the theme in its musical and visual setting. They respond to both the vocal
and visual aspects of the presentation, but they principally evaluate the interaction of those
aspects as they work together to create the image of the song. They adjudicate the quality and
appropriateness of the overall effect. The Presentation judge evaluates everything about the
performance that contributes to emotional impact upon the audience. This may or
may not include choreography. Choreography is not required to score well in barbershop
contests. The believability of the performance outweighs any moves your chorus might
incorporate into a song.

Singing evaluates the degree to which the performer achieves artistic singing in the
barbershop style. This is accomplished through precise intonation, a high degree of vocal
skill, and a high level of unity and consistency within the ensemble. Mastering these elements
also creates a feeling of fullness, ring, or expansion of sound throughout the performance.
When artistry is present, these elements will be natural, un-manufactured, and free from
apparent effort, allowing the performer to fully communicate the theme of the song. While
there are some subtle stylistic differences in barbershop singing, the fundamentals of singing
are the same as classical or standard choral singing. The focus is on correct breathing, breath
support, posture, tall and open vowels being sung without tension. Vibrato is a normal
phenomenon of proper breath management. In barbershop quartet singing, some vibrato in
the voice, especially the lead voice, can be very effective in enhancing the emotional content
of the music. However, too high a vibrato rate (especially in choruses) or excessive pitch or
volume variation will erode ensemble sound. Barbershop singing is more akin to the vocal
production of Renaissance madrigal singing, or even vocal jazz, rather than a Verdi or
Puccini aria.
Each judge awards up to 100 points per song. At the youth festival, there will be six judges,
two in each of the three categories (1800 possible points at the Youth Chorus
Festival). Unlike the standard academic grading scale, barbershop uses the following
numbers to determine a letter grade:
81-100

61-80

41-60

40 and below D
What is important to remember is that our best quartets and choruses in the world work very
hard to score in the 90s, and only a few ensembles each year even reach this plateau. Most
of the choruses and quartets in our organization score in the high 50s to mid 60s, which by
an academic scale would be D- or even failing, but actually equates to average or slightly
above average quality. If you bring a chorus to the youth festival, and score a 70 average
(middle B range), thats really like scoring an 85 on the academic scale. Dont be
discouraged if the initial numbers you see are surprisingly lower than what youre used to
seeing.