REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala.-- For A.D. Barksdale, being on the same sheet of music is more than just a cliché.
When he's not busy as Continuous Process Improvement Deployment Director, Army Contracting Command Contracting Operations Directorate here, he sings bass in the Rocketeers barbershop quartet. Barksdale says barbershop singers not only have to be on the same sheet of music, they have to be on the right pitch and focused on each other and the outer elements in order to be successful.
"Barbershop sounds bad if it is just a little off," he explained. "If one part fails, the other parts slide accordingly and become a massive train wreck--been there, done that. Barbershop takes a great deal of concentration and even the slightest bump can jar the harmonics out of tune."
Barksdale's singing roots go back to his childhood.
"I grew up in a church were we sang a cappella (without musical instrumentation)," he explained.
At the time, he was singing tenor. Then, in 1973, his voice changed and he became a bass within a few months. He stopped singing for a while in high school.
"Since I had never sung bass, I was unfamiliar with the scales and movements as well as the sounds," he explained. "I could not hear the notes in my head because I had never sung them. Therefore, I didn't want to sing because my voice would break and shift and it was laughable going through the voice change."
Some encouragement from a friend got him singing again. He tried out for Alabama All-State Chorus. His girlfriend had taken 13 years of piano and banged out his part. One month later at auditions he was asked to sing the only a cappella piece of the eight songs they were to learn. The conductor stopped him half-way through the song. Having thought he'd failed, Barksdale said he learned later that the conductor had given him the highest marks for singing his part on pitch and in tempo.
Since then, he never looked back. He's performed in dinner theaters and choruses, but his passion is barbershop. His college chorus director always had a barbershop quartet in her performances and Barksdale sang the bass part. He said he can vocalize all four parts--tenor, lead, baritone and bass--and has range of about four octaves.
"It's a lot of fun," he said. "The weird part is it's more enjoyable for the people singing it than for the listeners. When the barbershop chord is sung correctly in pitch, the chord will produce a mysterious fifth note that produces an overtone and describes musically what's known as the ringing of the chords. This ringing will actually vibrate your inner ear no matter how soft it is sung."
He said barbershopping is also a world-wide brotherhood.
"I can go up north, east, or west or out of the U.S. as a southern guy and all the politics, football and regional stuff go away. We have a standard of barbershop songs that every barbershopper has to learn so that when you hook up with other barbershoppers, you can immediately start singing because you know the standard songs."
According to the Barbershop Harmony Society website, barbershop harmony is "music in a very pure form created with nothing but human voices coming together to create a rich and satisfying texture that is pleasing to the ears and invigorating to the soul. Whether you're an experienced musician or a brand new musician, barbershop levels the playing field and allows you to find your voice and be a part of creating something that is greater than the sum of its parts."
Barksdale's fellow Rocketeers are also connected to Redstone Arsenal. John Charlton, who sings lead, is a retired Soldier currently employed as a logistician for the Apache Technical Management Division, Program Executive Office Aviation. Jim Savage, tenor, is a contractor software program manager supporting the Software Engineering Directorate. Tony Vollers is the baritone. He is a retired Army legal officer and supported the Multiple Launch Rocket System. The quartet performs about 30 times a year. It performed holiday music at this year's ACC Winter Organizational Day, as well as singing the National Anthem for the Redstone Arsenal 2014 9/11 observance.
The group sings "to experience the happiness that we can bring to others through our songs," according to its website. "There are times when we see a tear or a smile when we sing. When that happens, that is what we call 'golden moments' which inspire us to do the very best that we can."
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