#labbs

The Final Countdown: February

It’s been a challenging month. I’m not sure why, but towards the end of winter/beginning of spring my mental health just decides to go wacky for a bit. I’m not sure why, but here we are.

Besides that, other things have happened, I’ve had a million assessments, and my Grandad decided now was the time for him to leave.

Instead of dwelling on that, I’ve decided to take a leaf out of my friend Gem’s…

Sorry about the lack of me there, guys! I was at LABBS - the Ladies Association of British BarberShop! It’s a yearly barbershop convention - and this year I was so proud to be competing with Crystal Chords!

We came 4th! 4th best chorus in the whole UK!!! How fantastic is that? In 2 out of the 3 judging categories we came 3rd, and then 4th in the last one, and missed out on 3rd place overall by .7% (damn!) but our score went up by a whole 2% overall! I’m so proud ;O; And my lovely friends absolutely nailed their quartet <3

Highlights included competing (ofc!), tagging with Tagline (gold medal BABBS winners), our wonderful director and 3 chorus members winning gold in their quartet, Pzazz, and tagging until 4am with the bass of Lemon Squeezy - who was so, so lovely and welcoming!

(I was so chill around him ok the thirst was real but i acted hydrated)

What do you get when you cross a beauty therapist, a clinical hypnotherapist, a Learning and Development Consultant and an alloy wheel refurbishment manager?

 A quartet called Hot Note……  mmm …..I wonder which is which?

We started our journey in July 2013 when there was a flurry of phone calls about whether a quartet from Berkshire, Suffolk and Kent would be able to make a go of it.

It was certainly challenging to organise rehearsals across 3 counties and 2 choruses, but once we had settled on a location in Kent at Chris’s mum’s house (baritone) where she made a Victoria sponge at every rehearsal, Colette (bass) decided she was ‘happy with her selection’!

We then had the challenge of how 3 basses and a tenor would work – that’s 4 singers isn’t it? – ah just not with the right parts. Fortunately 2 of the quartet were bi-sectional so slotted nicely into lead and baritone – just a question of what song the key should be in. Once we had decided that everything should be in Ab we were off and running.

Well the voices went together alright, but would we like each other? You know just how important that is. It was certainly useful being able to have someone on hand to do your nails, sort out your tyres, listen to all your problems and design a training and coaching plan. What’s not to like?

As members of Sweet Adelines International, a world-wide women’s’ barbershop association, Hot Note were delighted to win the bronze medal at the regional contest in May 2013 – just 10 months after getting together, but we had also made the decision to join the Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers (LABBS) which brought with it another round of competitions.

We were very apprehensive about how we would fare at the preliminary round in June 2014, so were surprised and delighted to win, albeit by a very small margin! We knew that there were improvements we could make so it was time to call in the cavalry. Thanks to singing coach, Mike Taylor for treating us gently but working us hard in a short space of time as we prepared for the semi-finals.

So a shocked and astonished Hot Note did it – we lifted the big prize – National Champion Quartet 2014!

We all had very personal reasons for wanting to do quite well this year, but our lovely baritone Chris had been waiting 35 years, since her very first barbershop quartet Beaux Belles at the age of 15, to win her first quartet medal. So it can be done.