Wichita’s Sweet Adelines to harmonize at Scottish Rite Center

It’ll be an eardrum-flapping good time when Wichita’s Sweet Adelines take the stage for their 64th annual show.

That’s the best description of the physical effect – a delightful one, to be sure – that barbershop harmonies have on listeners, says Joann “Jo” Shope.

“When the notes come together, it creates a ring in your eardrum and your eardrum will actually flap,” said Shope, the group’s president.

The 30-member group – formally the Wichita Chorus of Sweet Adelines International – performs Saturday at Wichita Scottish Rite Center. Also appearing are two female quartets, one of them from Sweden, and the Midian Shrine Bourbon Street Band.

While barbershop harmonies are often associated with male quartets, the Sweet Adelines decided a long time ago that the musical genre was too sweet to leave to a bunch of guys in striped vests and straw hats.

Begun in Tulsa in 1945, Sweet Adelines International now claims a worldwide membership of about 24,000. The Sweet Adelines perform in quartets as well as choruses of more than 100 singers.

“The harmonies are like nothing you’ve ever heard,” said Melynnie Williams, the Wichita group’s director. “I think that’s the best part.”

Williams will perform two roles in Saturday’s concert. In addition to directing the chorus, she’s a member of Rio, a quartet whose other members come from Tulsa and Norman, Okla., and McKinney, Texas. Like the Swedish group, known as Vocality, they are headed to Las Vegas this month to participate in the Sweet Adelines annual convention and competitions.

“Both of our quartets are ranked,” she said. “Vocality is 10th, and we’re 12th and going back to Las Vegas to see if we can improve our scores and our placement.”

The Sweet Adelines’ music shares many traits with male barbershop singing: There’s a tenor singing the high part, a lead singing the melody, a bass singing the low notes and a baritone “that sticks everything together,” in Shope’s words.

“Obviously, our songs are arranged higher than the men’s are,” Williams said.

The biggest misconception about barbershop music is that it’s all old-timey songs, Shope and Williams said.

The title of this year’s show – “Happy Together” – is from the 1967 hit by the Turtles that the chorus will sing. The chorus will also perform “We Are Family,” by Sister Sledge, while Rio’s repertoire includes “Unbelievable” by that other Rio – Diamond Rio. Ballads, jazzy tunes and religious numbers will round out the show.

“You think it’s old-fashioned,” Williams said. “Really nowadays it’s anything than that.”

Swope noted that Vocality faces an extra challenge, since groups are judged on their ability to sing English in a certain way.

“One of the things that makes the chords ring is we all produce the same vowel sounds,” she said. “It takes a lot of practice.”

The Wichita chorus is made up of members ages 16 to 80. Shope said the group is interested in attracting new members. From now through Christmas, women can try out and participate in weekly practices without paying a membership fee.

“We take shower singers, people who sing in their cars,” Shope said. “If you can carry a tune, we’ll take you, and we’ll teach you.”

“It’s so much fun,” Williams added. “People are amazed at how exciting it is to sing barbershop. Once you try it, you’re hooked.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Wichita’s Sweet Adelines to harmonize at Scottish Rite Center."