Barbershop arrangements

Are you looking for a barbershop arrangement to sing with your group?

With a few exceptions, many barbershop arrangements are "unpublished", meaning that you cannot walk into a music shop and buy sheetmusic published by the big music publishing houses.  This does not mean however that they aren't available - far from it - you just need to know where to look!
 
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Some common sources of barbershop arrangements to purchase include the following:

Barbershop Harmony Society 

https://shop.barbershop.org/sheet-music-songbooks/
The BHS has more arrangements available than at the above link, but if you click on the link you will find music that is cleared for use/sale in the UK, thus avoiding some heartache. If you are looking for arrangements for women's voices, you can click on the filter option 'SSAA/Women', however that will bring back all arrangements - make sure you check the territory they can sell to, click on the 'Additional Info' tab and scroll to the bottom for territories.  

SheetMusicPlus dot com

Increasingly, barbershop arrangers are self-publishing their arrangements using the "ArrangeMe" programme on sheetmusicplus.com as a way of getting around the hassle of procuring permissions and licence to distribute. It's always worth a look, especially if you are looking for a specific song title or arranger to narrow down the search.

LABBS publishes recent polecats arranged by the LABBS Music Category Judges via sheetmusicplus, at the following link:

Published by LABBS on SMP 

 

Sweet Adelines International


https://members.sweetadelines.com/sa-merchandise-listing-music
Sweet Adelines also publish arrangements as "proper" sheetmusic. Note that some arrangements are only available to members of Sweet Adelines. 
 

Individual Arrangers


It is also common to approach arrangers direct, where their arrangements are not available by other means. This is more usually done when either looking to source a specific arrangement by that arranger, or where it is known that the arranger's style particularly suits your group. In either case, a normal web search is most likely to bring up the latest contact details or website.
 
 

Sources of free barbershop music

Barbershop Harmony Society 

https://www.barbershop.org/music/free-music-and-tags
BHS has some free songs and tags available for download, including a few in women's voicing. They are able to be free as they are songs in the public domain*, so older.

Harmony Incorporated

https://www.harmonyinc.org/members/learning-tracks/
Harmony Inc has some free music arranged for women's voicing for public access download - don't be put off by the words in the link! They are able to be free as they are songs in the public domain*, so older.

* Note: The legal definition of when something becomes public domain is different in the USA to the UK. If you do not know the difference and wish to perform one of these songs, always check first.