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One thing that you could add is to make sure that you have a Barbershop Quartet (or Chorus) willing to sing your arrangement so that you can hear the result of your effort. It is very useful to be present when they rehearse the song - as you will learn what works well and where they have difficulties! It would be an idea to join the Chorus to experience for yourself how difficult - easy - effective your arrangement is - and you will meet many of the Barbershop effects and styles in the process of singing other arrangements. Jeff

Can I get a transcription of this? Dang

This is a phenomenal video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Beautiful harmony!

Broooo he did

OK, that's pretty bad ass!

Hi Soren, when could you make a video to achieve good bass-baritone blends? thanks

please do the full song! this is amazing!

Man this one hit different than the others.

Was hoping for this Prayers were answered

I think you should combine your video clips and put them a ‘master course’ on a 3hr DVD. You’d make a mint!! I’d buy it.

What a fabulous guide to developing a fascinating skill. I love the way you deal with each step logically and musically. Excellent explanations and illustrations! So easy to follow. I only wish they had taught like this in college! Superb!! Can’t wait for more ‘advanced’ stuff.

The whistle overtone at the end:-D

Yeah that's pretty 💯

My god this is nice

So beautiful!! Those last 2 chords are so gorgeously written, and so well sung!!

Where did you buy that barbershop pole I want one

Could you do Lover Come Back 8 part

The IVm6 is just the V7b9sus. No?

Your channel is incredible thank you!

There are 100 cents in a half step, not a whole step :) terminology sucks, it's 100 cents to a whole half step!

Very entertaining and instructive. I've dabbled in arranging and have a story I'll share. I once arranged a song for a Harmony College contest to get a free attendance scholarship. I got the scholarship but in the meantime my quartet was casted for a Music Man production. The rehearsals and performances lasted several weeks and I missed Harmony College that year. I gotta find my Barbershop Arrangers Manual and my old notes. Thanks for the inspiration.

During the ring of the last chord, I could hear these amazing metallic sonorities, like tubular bells struck rhythmically. Turns out my flatmates were making electronic music downstairs that was in key with the chord. But still! Btw do you have perfect pitch or is any pitch flex used to tune these chords?

Man, I missed this video. I've been trying to compose Barbershop pieces like they were choral arrangements.

really basic question, is the bass clef transposed up an octave? or perhaps the other way around?

Excellent video! As for your question at the end: I generally like outlining what kind of textures I will be using in different parts of the arrangement with just a few words at each place before starting with step 3. This way I can gather inspiration about what I want to do and get a feeling for how the arrangement will look at the end without getting too bogged down by the details, or without feeling limited by the harmonies I have already put down on paper. But I'm very much a beginner, so anything I say should be taken with a grain of salt 😅

I liked version 2 the best. The slight drift in the bass sounds cool, and it feels like the group is really embellishing the lead melody in the most resonant way possible, without the lead compromising whatsoever.

Wow, what an incredible video! As someone who is a beginner (even at basic music theory) this video perfectly captivated me the entire way through. Although I didn’t understand everything (patly due to English not being my main language) it was still super interesting and easy to follow and I can definitely tell that the video had a lot of thought and care put into it. Can’t imagine how helpful this would be for someone who really wants to learn. Me personally, I loved the examples and I had fun singing a long. It was also incredibly cool to hear the comparison to really see how all the small changes add up! Felt like I had to leave a comment to show appreciation for putting in the time and effort in order to give out this information for free.

Great video! Just one question for a beginner though. If I’m using a music notation software like musescore, what would be the best voices to use to listen back to while I’m writing?

I hate you for this, it is an insult to the art of barbershop itself ...I will suggest this to my quartet

Isn’t version 3 just what happens naturally? In my college acapella group we don’t talk much about just intonation but when we sing passages that have barbershop-esque homophonic harmony we tune to each other so the chords ring. I feel like if everyone is listening to each other it’s the most natural way to fix this issue

Roman King reference 🥴

I already have a few potential arrangements floating around my head but I don't really know how to get all these ideas out of my head and onto sheet music, following these steps will probably help quite a bit. I'm pretty sure I already heard you talk about this when we visited y'all in December (BYC Member here😝) but it's wonderful to have it available in full video form now, thank you!

I appreciate your hard (and professional) work!

Can we get an annotated version?

Great video! I loved your theory videos over barbershop before this. Is there any possibility for you to do any arrangement coaching in the future (or do you know anywhere someone could go to get advice on specific arrangements)?

Not sure this really counts as theory but could you do one on vibrato? I sang in a pretty good vocal jazz group in college, we won a downbeat award one year, and our director absolutely refused to let us use vibrato unless it was in the lead part, just a little bit, and in solos. When I'm feeling snarky I feel vocalists started to sing with vibrato to deal with the even tempered piano and its all-encompassing dissonance. Very difficult to sing a grinding chord with vibrato and have it work. PS If you had somebody improvise in your quartet, you'd have a vocal jazz quartet :) lots of good music for that combination. PPS I have some scat singing videos on my channel. Awful production values but I can scat sing.

Overtones are why God gave us just intonation :) I've yet to hear one come from a piano. Sometimes you can get a string to vibrate if you hold a key down, I'm not sure that counts. When I was still teaching the jazz ensemble I used to show them about chords and how they needed to be tuned by using the trombone section. I would get a couple of guys going on a perfect 5th and then let the girl if there is one :) put in the major 3rd and mess with it until you hear it in tune and the overtones

I sang barbershop in high school but that was 50 years ago: I don't remember hearing about a barbershop 7th chord until about five minutes ago. If you have something called a barbershop 7th chord, can't it just be called a dominant 7th chord? If it's on the 5th degree of the scale I would say it's dominant and if it's on any other degree, it probably is a secondary dominant?

Dude thank you for sharing this. You just gave me the tools I need to start arranging. This made sense!!!

Great video Søren! Many great tips and ideas. I've so many times started an arrangement with the aim of making it shop but ended up disappointed just because I wanted to spice it up too much. Your 5-step model will make it easier in the future I hope. Greetings from a northern neighbor! 💈

nah this is fire wym

Vocal jazz didn't die with the singer's unlimited and. Manhattan transfer It just went underground in barbershop :)

I'm a baritone. I like to sing the penultimate note as a D natural, rather than another D#... I have to sing it really loud, though :)

This is GOLD!

Hell yeah

Those last notes gave me goosebumps the same way THX did when I was a kid

Is there anyway you could make this in an SSAA arrangement?