SING WITH SOA

The Sounds of Aloha Chorus (SOA) is in permanent recruiting mode! Male singers of all ages and all walks of life are invited to share in the fun. No prior experience or sight-singing ability is required -- just an ear, and a heart, for singing. We have some members who are highly educated musicians and others who never sang formally before joining us. We pride ourselves on helping ordinary voices make extraordinary music. And we are out to entertain!

We currently meet at the Honolulu Elks Lodge 616 on Monday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. But please always check here for our meeting plans for any given week, as plans sometimes change. (You can find that link on our home page under EVENTS and UPCOMING EVENTS on the main menu.) If you're interested in learning more about SOA or visiting, please contact us ahead of time if you can, as it helps us prepare to welcome you!

There are a few steps to becoming a chorus member:

ATTENDANCE
You should attend at least three chorus rehearsals before applying to join. Being an active SOA member requires some commitment (although we do welcome members who are less active owing to their schedules). We want a prospective member to know about our art form and our chorus before making that commitment or considering his options. Along the way, we'll teach you about barbershop harmony and provide lots of encouragement and help!

VOICE PLACEMENT
When you visit as a guest, the chorus will attempt to place you in the right voice part based on your interest, your voice range, your singing experience, and your ability to sing the melody or a harmony part. To help with the voice placement, we may ask you just to sing a simple song like "Happy Birthday" or try a little harmony singing -- but if we do, this will be an informal, low-pressure experience. In the beginning we're more focused on your ear than your voice, so don't worry if you think your voice is a little out of shape!

Sometimes a guest or a member asks to change to a different voice part after trying one part out for a while. That's OK!

PREPARATION
Once a guest has decided he'd like to join the chorus, he'll get some help working toward preparing for his audition. We are a performance organization and do have musical expectations of performing chorus members. But the Sounds of Aloha also are an educational organization. We work hard with prospective members to encourage them and help them succeed! One note: if a member is under the age of 18, we have a few extra procedures and practices just to make sure that he's appropriately supervised.

AUDITION & APPLICATION
The audition involves singing your own part from memory in a quartet on a chorus song of your choice for our musical director and your voice part's section leader(s). This is not a big a deal. Barbershoppers are good teachers and are committed to helping new people experience the joys of singing a cappella harmony. We offer helpful tools like recorded learning tracks and one-on-one coaching, and we'll get you working in a quartet ahead of time so you can practice beforehand. Besides, there's no time limit on how long you take to prepare, and you can audition more than once. This is a process, not a one-time, pass-fail event.

The guest also will fill out an application form to join the chorus and the Barbershop Harmony Society.

DUES
We want to be up front that we have annual membership dues, which currently total about $200. There also are up-front costs for chorus uniforms. But the dues are heavily discounted for members under 26 years old, and payment plans are available for anybody. The Sounds of Aloha will not let cost prevent anyone from singing with us.

APPROVAL & MEMBERSHIP
The final formality in the process is approval of the recommended member by the chorus board of directors. Then it's welcome to our musical fellowship!

Again, for more information, please contact us by webform, telephone, or email. Click here!
 

P.S. If you are a woman who is interested in singing barbershop harmony, we invite you to contact one or both of our local sister choruses: Honolulu Blend and Na Leo Lani!