Registered charity 1080930 · Singing together since 1974
Benefits of membership
We all share the joy of singing, but it's the harmony that makes the difference.
BABS is the charity behind barbershop singing in Britain; a network of clubs, quartets and teachers who make each other better. Here are nine things that come with belonging to it.
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BABS members in clubs and quartets
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registered choruses, male and mixed
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registered quartets, singing all year
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singing barbershop across the UK
Nine reasons singers stay
Tap any card to see what it actually means week to week.
Filter by who you are.
01 · LEARNING
Get better, fast
A whole library of teaching, and coaches who've done it themselves.
Members get educational materials, online sessions and in-person training covering vocal technique, performance, directing and arranging. You'll improve faster in a year of barbershop than in a decade of singing alone.
02 · PEOPLE
Sixteen hundred new friends
Clubs swap ideas, share arrangements and turn up for each other.
Membership connects you to every other BABS club and quartet in the country. Through our partnership with Making Music, to the wider world of amateur music-making. Collaborations and lifelong friendships start here.
03 · THE STAGE
Convention weekend
The highlight of the barbershop year and you're in it, not watching it.
Contests and conventions give choruses and quartets a proper stage, a real audience and written feedback from trained judges. Even if you never chase a trophy, it's the fastest way to hear how far you've come.
04 · VISIBILITY
People find you
On the map, in the newsletter, on the socials, in the podcast.
We promote member choruses and quartets through the Find a Chorus map, Book a Quartet, our channels and the Tune In podcast, bringing you new singers and new bookings without a marketing budget.
05 · BACKUP
Never run a club alone
Someone has already solved the problem your committee is stuck on.
Practical help with administration, recruitment, fundraising, safeguarding and governance, plus BABS grants for projects that grow singing. Advice from volunteers who've kept their own clubs thriving for decades.
06 · PEACE OF MIND
Insurance, sorted
Public liability and more, so you can just sing.
Every registered chorus and quartet is covered through our partnership with Making Music (public liability included) along with their library of templates, policies and legal guidance for community music groups.
07 · VALUE
Money off the good stuff
Events, merchandise, and sheet music you were buying anyway.
Member rates on BABS events, education and merchandise, plus a discount at the Barbershop Harmony Society's online marketplace. For most active singers the savings cover a good chunk of the subscription.
08 · BELONGING
A tradition you carry
Fifty years of British barbershop, and 70,000 singers worldwide.
As an Alliance Organisation of the Barbershop Harmony Society, BABS links British singers to a global community and every member helps keep an unaccompanied, all-ages, all-genders art form alive and growing here at home.
09 · IN THE ROOM
Workshops & masterclasses
A weekend with a great coach changes how you sing forever.
Harmony College and BABS workshops put you in front of experienced barbershop educators and performers, in small groups, singing all weekend. Members come home with new skills and a much bigger address book.
There's a club near you, and they'd love to hear you.
No audition to visit, no sheet music to buy, no experience required. Turn up on a rehearsal night, stand in a section, and hear what four parts feel like from the inside.
