October 16, 2025 • 43 mins
Tim Warrick is not just a tenor; he’s a powerhouse of barbershop harmony, and this episode captures his essence beautifully. With roots that trace back to singing at age four, Tim has built a career that intertwines his passion for music with a dedication to education and community. Our conversation kicks off with Tim recounting his early days in a barbershop quartet, illustrating the thrilling journey that led him to perform internationally and become a Hall of Fame inductee with the Barbershop Harmony Society. His infectious enthusiasm for barbershop music is evident, as he explains the magic of harmonizing in four parts and the unique joy it brings to both singers and audiences alike.
Throughout our conversation, we discuss the nuances of vocal training and the impact of great mentors on Tim’s development. He shares stories from his time with the Ambassadors of Harmony, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and support within the musical community. Tim's playful humor shines through as he discusses the trials and tribulations of maintaining vocal health, especially during the awkward teenage years when voices are in flux. His candidness about his own voice journey resonates with many aspiring singers, reminding them that every artist faces challenges, but perseverance and passion can lead to incredible outcomes.
As we transition into discussing Tim's work with Tim Tracks, we discover how he has transformed his love for teaching into a successful venture that aids singers of all levels in their quest for harmony. His innovative learning tracks have become a staple for many barbershop enthusiasts, providing a platform for singers to learn their parts in a fun and engaging manner. Tim’s insights into the learning process reveal his commitment to making music accessible, ensuring that everyone has the chance to join in the barbershop experience. So, tune in for an hour filled with inspiration, laughter, and the sweet sounds of harmony as we celebrate the artistry of Tim Waurick!
[00:00] Introduction to Tim Warwick: Barbershop Legend
[01:32] Welcome to St. Louis in Tune
[03:23] Tim Waurwick's Musical Journey
[04:50] The Appeal of Barbershop Harmony
[06:14] Joining and Performing with Groups
[08:57] Vocal Range and Voice Change
[16:15] Recording Tim Tracks
[21:27] Expressing Through Music
[22:29] The Ice Cream Song and Its Origins
[23:32] Tim's Journey in Music Videos
[29:14] Learning Tracks: Enhancing Barbershop Singing
[35:38] Advice for Aspiring Singers
[37:50] Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Takeaways:
- Tim Waurick started singing at the tender age of four, diving into barbershop harmonies by twelve, proving that talent knows no age limit!
- He’s not just a tenor, but a vocal powerhouse, known for his stratospheric range and ability to hit those high notes like a champ.
- Tim's journey in music led him to work with barbershop legends and earn a spot in the prestigious Barbershop Harmony Society's Hall of Fame, which is no small feat!
- He runs Tim Tracks, a music production company that creates learning tracks aimed at helping singers master their parts, making barbershop harmony more accessible to everyone.
- The beauty of barbershop music lies in its accessibility; it's a style that welcomes both seasoned pros and enthusiastic beginners, encouraging everyone to sing along!
- Tim emphasizes the importance of taking care of your voice, advising aspiring singers to find a great vocal coach and to protect their vocal cords like they're precious gems!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
He started singing at age 4and at age 12 was in a barbershop
quartet. And over the years hehas worked and learned from many
barbershop greats and hasachieved international recognition
in his craft. He was selectedto be the fantasy tenor, unquote,
a fantasy gold quartet, andwas inducted into the Barbershop
Harmony Society's hall ofFame. He is a recording artist with
(00:24):
several albums and he's aneducator. He's the one behind timtrax,
a music production company.You can watch his Tim tags on social
media. Tim Warwick's his name,and he's one of the few barbershop
enthusiasts who's managed toturn his hobby into a profession.
He's a tenor who's known forhis long notes and stratospheric
range. Just like this, folks.
(00:46):
No one sings higher no onesings higher no one sings higher
no one sings higher than.
(01:32):
Welcome to St. Louis in Tune.And thank you for joining us for
fresh perspectives on issuesand events with experts, community
leaders and everyday peoplewho make a difference in shaping
our society and world. I'mArnold Stricker along with co host
Mark Langston, who is onassignment today. We are glad that
you've joined us today, folks.We want to thank our sponsor, Better
Rate Mortgage, for theirsupport of the show. You can listen
(01:55):
to previousshows@stlandtune.com please help
us continue to grow by leavinga review on our website, Apple Podcast,
or your preferred podcastplatform. We're going to skip our
thought to ponder todaybecause our guest has been waiting
in the wings and I wanted tomention this was my introduction
(02:15):
to our guest. If you missedthe opening, you have to go back
and catch that. But this wasmy opening to our guest, Tim Worth.
Listen to this.
Cornbread, cornbread,cornbread, corn bread.
(03:01):
Tim Warrick, welcome to St.Louis in Tune. The hair on the back
of my neck still stands.
Thanks, Arnold. Great to be here.
Oh my gosh. I heard that and Iwas like, you've got to be kidding
me. You've got to be kiddingme. I've got a music ed degree just
like you and I was amazed atjust your range and the fortitude
(03:23):
in which you perform. Wheredid this all start? How did this
all start for you?
I started as a kid in middleschool. I started singing barbershop
music back then. And then overthe years I just continued to do
it through school, throughhigh school, and then into college.
Actually ended up going toLindenwood University out St. Charles
and started singing in acourse called the Ambassadors of
(03:46):
Harmony and joined a Quartetcalled Vocal Spectrum. So the Ambassadors
of Harmony have gone on to winmultiple international chorus championships
in my quartet. Vocal Spectrumhappened to win the International
Quartet contest back in 2006.So we've been together for about
22, 23 years now. So it's beena long time. But yeah, that's how
(04:08):
it started. And I just. I'vehad the opportunity to work with
some amazing, amazing people.Dr. Jim Henry, who is a professor
at UMSL now, was my professorat Lindenwood for a while. And he's
one of the directors of theAmbassadors of Harmony. And just
a great coach for us andreally helped us shaped my musical
abilities in many ways, butworked really hard at it. And yeah,
(04:29):
it's been something I'veworked at for a long time. Really
blessed to be able to keepsinging for all these years.
Acapella work has really madea resurgence over the last maybe
15, 20 years with groups likeTake Six. And you recently were singing
with Voctive, which is afavorite group of mine. And what
a great group of folks. And Iwant to come back now, come back
(04:51):
to that one. But what is itabout barbershop harmony or barbershop
quartet or singing thisacapella like you've done the Stars
and Stripes where you're doingall the parts and things like that.
What is it about that kind ofmusic that really appeals to our
ears?
I think first of all, there'sa certain excitement in barbershop
music. It's four parts,obviously, acapella. One thing that
(05:14):
barbershop does that a lot ofother styles of acapella I don't
think do as well is completechords. Sometimes you'll just have
a lot of three part chords andother forms of acapella. And in barbershop
we use a lot of seventhchords. We make sure that the voicings
are really strong. So I thinkthat's just one aspect of barbershop
that's really cool. I alsothink the barbershop is pretty accessible.
(05:34):
If you can sing, then you cansing barbershop singing. And at the
same time, singing barbershopat the highest level is really challenging.
It takes a lot of work andprecision. So I think it's really
cool because barbershop isaccessible to the very average singer,
the non professional singer.And at the same time, it's something
(05:55):
that just takes an incredibleamount of skill to pull off at the
highest level.
So when you were going from my.
Dog is what's that?
Your dog's trying to sing too?Yes. What's to get in on the action.
Yes. Snoring away. Sorry.
No worries. When you went fromthe Ambassadors of Harmony and you
(06:18):
were here in the St. Louisarea for about 15 years, and you
went back to Pennsylvania, andyou've traveled around the country
and you've traveledinternationally in getting all of
the groups together. And howdo you find a group or how do you
click with a group like, gee,we're looking for a first tenor.
Or I'm sure you sing firsttenor, but you sing all the parts.
(06:40):
I know that. But you're mainlya first tenor, correct? Yeah.
The part that I sing in myquartet is the top tenor part. In
barbershop, we have fourparts. There's the tenor part, which
is the highest part. There'sthe lead part, which is the melody.
And that's something that'salso pretty. Pretty special about
barbershop, is that the leadis the second voice down, and that's
(07:02):
the melody. It's almost alwaysthere. Often in choral music, you'll
hear the tenor part or the toppart being the melody. And barbershop
is a little different fromthere. We have the bass down at the
bottom, and then the baritonesings the leftover notes. And in
Barber shop, the baritone cansing really high or really low. It
depends on the song. But,yeah, I only sing with my quartet
(07:24):
vocal spectrum. I've subbed inwith other groups. I've subbed in
with other barbershop groups.Obviously, I'm a sub for voctive,
which is so much fun. But,yeah, having traveled around and
seen other groups, the way tojoin it is mainly through finding
a chorus. And then you putyour own quartets together. That
way you meet people and you doit that way. Some people just really
enjoy singing in choruses, andsome people want to do more and sing
(07:48):
in quartets and choruses. Andso it's really cool. Barbershops,
just. You can barbershop theway you want to. That's sort of how
it works.
Barbershop smorgas. Smorgasbord.
Exactly.
What was it like singing withvoctive? That's a group that we've
talked about and actuallyplayed some of the music on the show
here before.
They're incredible. You havethese 11 professional musicians,
(08:11):
and everybody is just a masterof their voice. They know what they're
doing. They know how to do it.And it's just very virtuosic. Like,
you have these amazingsopranos that can sing into the stratosphere
and basses who can sing as lowas possible. And then, of course,
the main one of the one of myfavorite singers in the group is
EJ who sings the tenor onepart. And he can sing basically as
(08:35):
high as a tenor can ever sing.And it's effortless and free, and
it's so good. So for me tohave the opportunity to just fit
my voice into that group is.Has been an honor whenever I've had
the opportunity sub with thema couple times or rehearse with them
a couple times a year. So it'sa lot of fun to be able to sing with
them when I have theopportunity to do it, because they're
(08:56):
incredible, just amazing.
When did you realize that yourrange was pretty much out of sight?
I know you probably go intofalls that you can go way, way up
there beyond stratosphere. Andyou also sing. You have the ability
to get down in low and somelow bass parts. When did you experiment?
(09:17):
Or wow, I can't believe I cando that.
It might have been toward thebeginning of college was when I just
was singing something and Itried to sing at an octave higher
and it came out pretty well.And I think it was actually the lead
of my quartet. His name isEric Dowdy. And Eric was. Whoa. Like,
that's really high. Like, youcould sing like soprano notes and
(09:37):
stuff like that. And. And sothat was just one of those things.
And for a long time when my. Iwent through a really difficult voice
change. So I was able to singbass in high school because I was
having such a difficult timewith my voice changing. I was cracking.
And there are two things thathappen. Number one, I continued to
sing barbershop, and I was atenor in my quartet. So I can. I
(09:59):
really wanted to keep singingtenor. So I went from this child
kid full voice tenor as a kidinto more. Maybe a falsetto tenor,
maybe a little more of thatmixed falsetto tenor while I was
going through my voice change.And it was just one of those things
where I kept singing in thatrange when my voice changed and my
(10:22):
voice. My middle school choirteacher was a big help into giving
me voice lessons and helpingme through that voice change. And
so while that was happening, Icontinued to sing in the really high
range. And I think as aresult, I kept a lot of the high
notes that I had as a child asfar as being able to sing really
(10:42):
and mix and stuff like that atthe same time. Because my voice change
was so bad and I couldn'treally sing in more of a full voice
tenor range. I sang bass orbaritone in choir in my regular classical
choir in high school. So for Acouple years there, I honed my bass
singing while I was alsoworking at my high falsetto. And
(11:06):
then as the voice changedslowly, it was a long, horrible voice
change.
But.
Realized, okay, wait, I canalso sing a little bit higher in
the tenor range too, and alittle more of a full sound. So I
started to work on refiningthat a little bit too. So it just
all worked together over theyears between this horrible voice
(11:28):
change turned into a realblessing for me as far as range goes,
because I somehow kept my bassrange and my soprano range and then
was able to get my tenor rangeback into decent shape over the years.
And so if I were to actuallyclassify my voice type, I would probably
say I'm more of a tenor twothan a tenor one. I can sing tenor
(11:50):
one notes, but I prefer tosing tenor two because it fits a
little more comfortably in myrange. Like, on a regular basis,
that's what I've filled in.When I filled in with vocative, I've
done 10 or two. And so, yeah,that's how that has worked. And as
I've gotten older, my bassrange continues to grow. And then
you just work hard to keep thehigh range going. So, yeah, it's
just one of those things thatjust happened naturally as I was
(12:14):
growing up. And so I reallyencourage. Whenever I see somebody
who's in high school or middleschool and they're. You can tell
they're either about to gothrough the voice change or they
are in the middle of it, andthen they talk about it, I always
tell them, keep singing yourhigh range, work on your low range,
but keep working on that highrange, because you will really be
able to keep a lot of those. Ithink you should be able to keep
(12:34):
a lot of those high notes ifyou continue to use them. Yeah.
I was going to ask you. I'm aninstrumentalist, so I wouldn't have
the answer to this question.That's why I'm asking you. You're
a vocalist. Is the developmentof your vocal cords at that time
during the change, was thatstrengthening them? Was. I know you
can stretch them, which causessome voice problems, but does doing
that during that time of thevoice change, is there a physiological
(12:58):
kind of situation that goes on there?
I wish I could give you theanswer. I don't really know other
than I just believe that a lotof people, when they go through their.
Through a voice change, theyjust lose their high range and they
stop. They just go. And thenthey can't do it. So they're just
staying low. And then afterthat's done, they have to redevelop
their higher range. That's allI know is that I believe that it
(13:22):
is a muscle. And keeping themuscle moving and keeping the muscle
in that, able to stretch intothat range is, I think, was really
beneficial for me.
This is Arnold Stricker withMark Langston of St. Louis and Tune.
We're talking to Tim Warrick.He's a singer, vocal coach, recording
artist, music educator, andmember of the Barbershop Harmony
(13:45):
Society's hall of Fame. What agreat honor that was.
Oh, I couldn't believe it. Ithought to myself, isn't that what
is. A lot of people that go inthere are a bit older than me. So
when I was told that I wasgoing in, I thought, this doesn't
feel right.
Pinch yourself.
I've got more to do. I feellike I have more to do. And, yeah,
(14:07):
interestingly, I was notifiedthat I was going in to the Barbershop
hall of Fame prior to me everputting out a video on YouTube or
Instagram or TikTok, Facebook,any of that stuff. All of those tag
videos that I've done havecome out since I was told I was going
into the hall of Fame. It wasright at the exact time. Was right
(14:28):
around that time when thathappened. And I remember thinking
to myself, wow, I'm just doingthis new thing. I feel like I've
got more new things to do.And, yeah, like I said, a lot of
older people are the ones thatgo in. I joked. I was like, is that,
like, a hint? Are you, like,telling me it's time to be done?
Yeah, but now it's. But it wasreally cool. And then the following
year, my quartet was alsohonored to go into the hall of Fame
(14:49):
as well. So really honored tohave had that opportunity, both personally
and also with local spectrum.
That's a huge deal. That's ahuge deal, Tim, because you think
of how many barbershopquartets are out there, and I know
folks, you might not thinkthere's many. I know there's a lot,
and it's a fun thing to singin. And then when you get to the
(15:12):
point where you'reinternationally recognized individually
and then in your group,that's. That's tremendous, Tim.
Thank you. It really does meana lot because they really only induct
one to two, maybe three atmost people and. Or groups occasionally.
Groups tend to go in maybeevery five, six years. There aren't
(15:33):
there? I think there are atotal of maybe 14 or 13 quartets
that have ever been inductedinto the hall of Fame. And so it's
just really a cool honor tohave that, to have people think that
we've done or I've donesomething significant in this genre.
It means a lot because youdon't really set out to do that.
You don't really set out tosay, oh, I want to go into the hall
(15:55):
of Fame and I want to do allthese things. You just do what you
do, right. And hope it makes adifference and hope that. And you
do what you do. Because youenjoy it too. Because I love it.
I've always enjoyed it. Soit's not something that I've done
because I have aspirations ofgrandeur. It's just it started as
a hobby and became a bit moreof a profession. But it's always
remained a hobby for me aswell, which is interesting.
(16:17):
Now I want to play something.And this is from one of your Tim
tracks. And folks, you can seeTim's information. Tim work. I'll
give his email. That's not hisemail. I'll give his website out.
It's Timtracks.com T I M T R AC K S dot com and you can catch some
of these on also on manysocial media platforms. But let's
(16:38):
listen to this one.
If you miss the train I'm onyou will know that I am gone. You
can hear the whistle blow ahundred miles, a hundred miles.
(17:17):
I love watching you sing too.And folks, you have to look at it.
You have to watch him. He'sgot all four parts going and you
see his face. And what's evenbetter than singing with your siblings
is singing with yourself.
I guess it is fun and I lovesinging and it's fun to sing. Sometimes
(17:39):
they're really old songs andsometimes they're newer songs. And
I guess that one's kind of inthe middle somewhere. The Peter,
Paul and Mary song.
How do you go about doing oneof your Tim tracks? How long does
it take you to get all fourparts? You basically, okay, I've
got that one down. I can sightsing that one. And now you've got
worked out their phrasing andwhich one do you record first? And
(18:00):
et cetera, et cetera. Walk usthrough that.
Yeah, the first thing I do isI'll record the lead part, the melody
almost always. And so that'llbe the first thing I do is. But before
that I'll look at the song orI'll look at the piece and I'll just
say, okay, what's the processhere? What's what Do I want to do
with this? And often I willcreate a little plan for myself.
(18:23):
I. When I'm recording alearning track now I have, obviously
I have my Tim tags that I puton YouTube, but also I have 1500
learning tracks that I'verecorded over the years. When I'm
doing a learning track, we'llsay no video. I'll sight read it,
I'll give it a little bit of alook. I'll make sure I have an understanding
of what the overall song is,what the arc is of the song, how
I want to work on it musicallyand expressively at the same time.
(18:46):
But then, then I'll record itand I go, I'll record until I'm unhappy
and then I'll go back and doit and eventually I get to the point
where I'm reasonably happywith it. And then the next, the next
one I'll do is the bass.Depending on the song these days,
depending on the song, I mightdo it in the morning, I might do
it the next morning because Ijust. Even though I can sing decently
(19:06):
low, like throughout the day,in the morning I feel like I'm just
a bit more resonant and my lowrange is just a little stronger.
Over the years, especiallywhen I was younger, I always recorded
bass in the morning. And now Istill do, but I don't have to as
much, but I definitely leantoward that. And then from there
I work with the baritone andtenor parts, normally baritone and
then the tenor. And that'll bemy routine of doing that. Then from
(19:29):
there I'll go through and justmake sure everything is right. I
make sure I didn't miss anynotes and stuff like that. So I really
try to take good care to makesure that I've not missed anything.
Because when you're.Especially when you're sight reading,
it's just easy to miss stuff.And then. Yeah, and then from there
I just, I try to do a littlebalancing, make sure the balance
is good, add some reverb andsome EQ and all that jazz. And that's
(19:52):
kind of it. The overallprocess to record a learning track
is probably somewhere aroundsix hours or so. For the videos.
I memorize the part and recordit and the video and then. Yeah,
and then I actually will takethe audio and the video and we'll
put it all together. Because Ilike to make sure the audio has all
of the reverb. I just, I likeprefer it that way. So I always do
(20:15):
it that way. And so yeah, theprocess normally lead then bass Then
baritone, then tenor. Andthat's the overall quick process
for what I do for recordingthese tracks.
I appreciate that you also putthe music on there so you can actually
see what's going on.
Yeah, initially I didn't, butthen some people were stealing that.
(20:35):
They were taking the videothat I did and then adding music
and putting it on their ownchannels. What? And I remember one.
I remember. Yeah, there's one.And it's still out there. It has
well over as 1.5 millionviews. It's my video, but they put
the sheet music on it and cameup with a clever title. And it has
three times the views that myvideo has.
(20:57):
Oh, my.
And at the same time, itdefinitely gave me exposure. And
so I think. I don't think itwas done maliciously, but I realized,
wait. People really like tolook at the music, so let me just
start adding it. And so I tryto add it to almost every video that
I do, just because I thinkit's another piece that is interesting
(21:17):
for people to watch. If peoplewant to watch me, that's fine. Or
they want to look at themusic, even better.
You've got a great face, andit's. I can tell you are really into
the music. And folks, you gotto watch these videos because you
really express what's goingon, especially when you're doing.
I'm going to play this one,especially something like this.
(21:37):
Ice cream. Ice cream.
Ice cream. Ice cream. Icecream. Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice
(22:09):
cream. Ice cream. Ice cream.
(22:35):
Now you heard this big thumpat the end. You have to watch that
and see what happened to Tim.
That was. So I had donecornbread, and everyone's like, you
got to do another food one.And I was really very thankful that
cornbread was featured onAmerica's Funniest Home Videos in
earlier this year. And so Ithought, now is a good time to do
(22:57):
another food one. So I putanother food one out for ice Cream.
It was the set, the originalquartet that sang that the music
man, the ice cream bit was theBuffalo Bills. The Buffalo Bills.
It was their 75th anniversaryof when they won the International
Quartet Championship.
Wow.
And my quartet vocal spectrum,we actually got to do that at the
Muni. We sang the part of thequartet in 2009. We were the barbershop
(23:20):
quartet there at the Muni. Sothat was a lot of fun. But of course,
had to add a little bit at theend. I had to make the big long note
and. And have a little fun.There's actually Ice Cream in the
video that's right. You haveto watch the video. There's actually
ice cream. I went throughmultiple ice cream cones on this
video, unfortunately.
So how many Tim tracks are out there?
(23:42):
Tim tracks?
Yeah. How many?
I've done. I know I've donesomewhere around.
Not counting the learningtracks. Not counting the learning
track.
The learning tracks is like1500, but the actual videos, I've
done probably about 215 videos.
Okay.
Over the past few years, it'sbeen just about four years that I've
done this. I do one a week.Occasionally I'll do a bonus one,
(24:02):
but for the most part it's onea week. And yeah, almost four years
ago is when I started puttingout these videos.
That's a lot of work. We'regoing to take a quick break and we
will be right back, folks.This is Arnold Strick with Mark Langston.
You're listening to St. Louisin Tune on the U.S. radio Network.
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This is Arnold Stricker of St.Louis in tune on behalf of the Dred
Scott Heritage Foundation. In1857, the Dred Scott decision was
a major legal event andcatalyst that contributed to the
Civil War. The decisiondeclared that Dred Scott could not
(25:12):
be free because he was not acitizen. The 14th Amendment was also
called the Dred ScottAmendment, granted citizenship to
all born or naturalized herein our country and was intended to
overturn the US Supreme Courtdecision on July 9, 1868. The Dred
Scott Heritage foundation isrequesting a commemorative stamp
to be issued from the USPostal Service to recognize and remember
(25:33):
the heritage of this amendmentby issuing a stamp with the likeness
of the man Dred Scott. But weneed your support and the support
of thousands of people whowould like to see this happen. To
achieve this goal, we ask youto download, sign and share the one
page petition with others. Tofind the petition, please go to dredscottlives.org
and click on the Dred Scottpetition drive on the right side
(25:53):
of the page. On behalf of theDred Scott Heritage foundation, this
has been Arnold Stricker of.
St. Louis in June.
Do.
Every time that I look in themirror all these lines on my face
(26:23):
get clearer the past is goneit went by like.
Welcome back to St. Louis inTune. This is Arnold Stricker with
Mark Langston. We're talkingto Tim Warwick, singer, vocal coach,
(26:45):
recording artist, musiceducator and member of the Barbershop
Harmony Society's hall ofFame. Aerosmith needs to listen to
this. What do you think, Tim?
This was a lot of fun.
This isn't just four. This iswhat, eight?
Oh, yeah. Somewhere aroundeight or so. Maybe even a couple
(27:07):
more, if I remember correctlyrecorded it. It was originally done
by. Arranged. Arranged. Thevocal arrangement was done by Gary
Lewis and it was originallydone for the. There's a show that
we always have all thechampion quartets. We always do a
championship show at theinternational convention every. That's
held every year in a differentcity. And that song was sung. That
(27:31):
was one of the songs we didwhen we were in Cleveland. We did
a little Rock and Roll hall ofFame tribute there. And yeah, by
the way, just so you all know,the International Barbershop Convention
is going to be in St. Louisthis coming July, the first week
of July. And more informationis@Barbershop.org that's a little
ad there. And I make nothingoff of that, by the way. But for
(27:52):
those of you interested inchecking out the best the barbershop
go, either barbershop.org oreventually more information will
be available for the AIC,which is the championship organization.
And that'll be held Fridaynight. I believe it's Friday night.
Is it July 4th? Maybe I'mwrong on that, but yeah, that'll
be held almost. Let me seehere. Looks like July. The. Where
(28:18):
are we? Okay, sorry. There wego. July here in St. Louis. I'll
be singing on a show down inthe city. I think the venue is just
about to be announced. Itshould be really a great show. And
I'll also be singing in St.Louis this coming December. It'll
be December. The I'm givingyou the day here. December 12th,
(28:38):
13th and 14th as part of theAmbassadors of Harmony Christmas
shows. Every year, theAmbassadors of Harmony puts on an
amazing Christmas show,holiday show, and my quartet, vocal
spectrum will be singing onthose shows. There's one Friday night,
one on Saturday afternoon, oneon Saturday night and one on Sunday
afternoon. I think moreinformation is probably ambassadorsofharmony.org
(28:59):
I believe it'll be at the Two Hill.
Okay.
Definitely worth checking out.It's a lot of fun and really great.
Gets you in the spirit of theseason, for sure.
Yeah, we will advertise thoseon the POD page.
Yeah, please do. Becausethey're great. They're my. One of
my favorite shows of the yearare those Ambassadors of Harmony
Christmas shows.
(29:20):
Talk a little bit about thelearning tracks that you do and get
into some specifics becauseI'm sure there's some people who
are listening who are like,yeah, I want to excel a little bit
more in the barbershop quartetrealm. Or maybe there's some up and
coming folks who would like todelve into it a little bit deeper.
What is. What do those provideand what exactly do they do for people?
(29:45):
The learning tracksthemselves, those. So those are meant
as educational tools. It's tohelp people learn their part. So
if you ever sing along with asong on the radio, and then eventually
you know the song, you canjust sing it because you've learned
it by ear. That's whatlearning tracks do. They really assist
in learning your part. Soespecially in barbershop, it gets
(30:06):
a little challenging.Especially the baritone parts are
a little all over the place.So it really gives you the opportunity
to hear parts. My goal is tocreate a recording that isn't just
the right notes and words, buthopefully a bit more of the expression
that we would be going for,some of the dynamics and hopefully
the best vocal quality we cancome up with. So that's a goal is
(30:31):
to have a. A tool that you canuse to learn your parts. And so that's
what the goal of learningtracks are. They can be used for
people who don't read music.So if you can't read music, you can
still learn your part if youcan learn it by just listening. There
are tracks where you have yourpart in your left ear and the other
three parts in the right ear.There are some where I have an offer
(30:53):
where you don't have your partat all.
So you.
If you've learned it, you canstrengthen it by just singing against
those recordings. I've usedthose often when I've filled in with
groups or whatever. I willtake the part missing track where
it has just three parts, andthen I'll sing my part with it to
help me replicate the feelingof singing with a quartet. And then,
of course, I also have thepart predominant where you can just
(31:15):
listen to your part mostlyloud and learn your notes. Now that
works for people who don'tread music at all. So there are so
many people out there in greatgroups, like the best groups, and
they don't know how to readmusic at all. They just learn this
way.
Wow.
But then it also can reallyhelp. For me, I would use it to just
listen and I can sight read.So I will look at the music and I
(31:38):
will play the track at thesame time. And it speeds up my process
because. Right. I don't. Ijust. I can hear it and I can look
at it and I get it reallyquickly. Yeah. Learning tracks are.
The goal is to really enhancethe learning process. A, it'll help
everybody learn their notefaster. And then B, as they start
singing in their chorus orquartet, the hope is that you come
(31:59):
in with a higher level ofunderstanding of the song, maybe
a higher level of expression,maybe some good vocal tools, so that
when you come in, it'sactually better than it could have
ever been if you had juststood around with the music and started
singing through the song.
What a great service you'reoffering with that. That's available
on TimTrax.com.
(32:20):
Yeah, everything. That's allavailable on TimTrax.com and, yeah,
it's something that I've beendoing now for almost 23 years, which
is crazy.
Holy smoke.
A friend of mine asked me todo it because he was. I do them for
high voices, too, for SSAA orwomen's voices. He directed a woman's
chorus and he was trying torecord the learning tracks for them.
(32:40):
He was trying to help themlearn their music because a lot of
them couldn't read it. And sohe eventually came to me, he said,
hey, you can sing. Hi. Can youdo that? Do that for me? Because
it's not going so well. Andthat was how it all started. And
then word of mouth spread.Eventually a website came up and
off we go. So, yeah, it's beena long time and a lot of recording
(33:00):
over the years now.
Where do you come up with allthese arrangements? I know there's
barbershop quartet arrangersout there. Have you ever arranged
anything?
I have arranged a few songs,but not a lot. I would say that my.
I'm primarily just recordingother people's arrangements. There
are great arrangers out in thebarbershop farming society, and many
(33:22):
of them. So, for instance, weuse. One example is Dr. David Wright,
who used to be. I know for along time he was a math professor
there at WashingtonUniversity, was the chair of the
math department at one point.And David is The greatest barbershop
arranger of all time, in my opinion.
Wow.
Done a lot of the arrangementsfor my quartet through the Ambassadors
of Harmony and many othergroups throughout the world. So someone.
(33:46):
So there's either twoprocesses. One, a group will go to
David and say, hey, David, canyou arrange this song for me? And
then he'll do it, or B, he'llalready have done it for somebody
over the years. And the groupwill say, oh, we really like that
arrangement that David did. Wethink that'll fit for our group.
Let's buy that and then let'shave Tim record the tracks for it.
(34:08):
So that's the process as agroup will come to me with an arrangement
already intact from anarranger, and they'll say, can you
record this? Often it's brandnew. Often the arranger just finished
doing it. And then sometimespeople will have an older arrangement
that someone had done previousyears, and they'll say, hey, actually,
we want to sing this song now.And often arrangers will make that
(34:30):
piece available for otherpeople to sing. So that's how that
process works of me gettingthe music and getting the arrangement.
Very rarely am I the one thatsays, hey, I want to record this
song, because I have peoplecoming to me to commission me to
do learning tracks. So that'show this has worked over the years.
If someone will come to me andcommission me and say, oh, we'd like
(34:50):
you to do the learning tracksfor this song. And I'll. Then I'll
record them and eventuallyafter a period of time, I'll put
them up on my website forresale and people will then find
them and they'll go to thearranger and say, oh, we want to
sing the song too. And it'sjust how it works. So, yeah, pretty
fun little model that we havethere going.
You found a great lane. Itseems like this was something that
(35:13):
was not out there and peoplewere hungry for something like this
and really needing somethinglike that.
Yeah, a lot of. Like I talkedabout, barbershop is so accessible
to the average cigarette, tothe person who has never taken a
voice lesson, who's never sungin a choir, but it's AKA same barbershop.
But maybe they don't know howto read music at all. They have this
(35:34):
tool where they can listen toit and they can learn their part
and come in and actually knowwhat their. Know what their part
is, even if they couldn't tellyou what note it is on the page.
Now, you've answered aquestion for those who aspiring barbershop
quartet singers or those whowere involved in currently with some
of your Tim track things andsome of the advice that you've given.
(35:55):
What advice do you give tothis? The budding singer, whether
they're going to be involvedin barbershop or not, or whether
they're going to become just aregular chorus singer in their high
school or maybe going on tocollege or maybe wanting to sing
an opera or something likethat. What advice do you give Tim?
Number one, I would say find agreat voice teacher and work with
(36:17):
them. If you want to sing forthe long haul, that is the best way
is to find a good voiceteacher who helps you sing freely
and easily and where itdoesn't hurt, if it feels good and
it's. It works well. And Iwould definitely say get a voice
teacher. And then from there Iwould say just try to take good care
of your voice. There are alltypes of things environmentally that
(36:40):
can impact your voice, whetherit be allergies or acid reflux or
alcohol or different thingscan really affect your voice. So
just try to get a gauge ofwhat impacts your voice and try to
work through that andunderstand what that is and yeah,
and don't beat your voice upbecause you only get one and so take
(37:05):
care of it. Scream a lot at aWhen I go to a baseball game or a
football game or whatever, Iclap a lot. I don't scream.
Why?
Because I don't want to hurt myself.
Wise We've been talking to TimWarrick. He's a singer, vocal coach,
recording artist, musiceducator, member of the Barbershop
Harmony Society's hall ofFame. You can find out more about
(37:26):
tim@timtrax.com t I m t r a ck s.com and also check him out on
social media. He's on FacebookTikTok. He's on Instagram. He's on
YouTube. I will post all thoseon the podcast page. Tim, thank you.
Thank you very much for comingon St. Luis and tune. Greatly appreciate
talking to you and listeningto all your insights about barbershop
(37:48):
quartet and barbershop harmony.
My pleasure, Arnold. It's justbeen great to be here and great to
just chat and hang out.
Sounds great. Thank you, Tim.
Thank you.
Wow, folks, what a wonderfulguest and musician Tim Warrick is.
He's a great guy. Want toencourage you to go to his website,
contribute to him. He does.This is his business. This is how
(38:09):
he makes his livelihood. Andif you feel so inclined, he's got
a Patreon site which we willpost on the podcast page. Please
Feel free to donate to that.It's important to support excellent
things. Tim does an excellentjob in what he does. When you see
excellent things around, it'simportant to take time, review them,
listen to them, watch them,acknowledge them, and thank the people
(38:32):
who've done them. Because it'simportant to do that. I want to play
one more song here that Timhas done.
O Danny boy the pipes, thepipes are calling from glen to glen
and down the mountainside thesummer's gone and all the roses fall
(39:03):
falling it's you, it's youmust go and I must bide and I must
bide but come ye back whensummer's in the meadow or when the
(39:29):
valley's high and white withsnow It's I'll be here in sunshine
(39:52):
or in shadow. O Jenny boy, OJenny boy, I love you so. But when
(40:21):
you come and all the flowersare dying, if I am dead, as dead
I well may be, you'll come andfind the place where I am lying and
(40:50):
kneel and say.
And.
Of ae there for me and I shallhear those soft you tread above.
Me.
(41:12):
And O my grave will warmersweeter be for you will bend and
tell me that you love me.
(41:49):
And.
I shall sleep in peace untilyou come to me, O daddy boy, O daddy
boy, O I love.
(42:17):
You.
So.
Want to thank Tim War for histime today on St. Louis in Tune.
Folks, we appreciate youtaking time to spend this hour with
(42:38):
us and listening to Tim talkabout his career and the things that
he's doing to encouragesinging and barbershop harmony around
the world. That's all for thishour. We want to thank you for listening.
If you've enjoyed thisepisode, you can listen to additional
shows@stluntune.com considerleaving a review on our website,
(42:59):
Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, oryour preferred podcast platform.
Your feedback helps us reachmore listeners and continue to grow.
We want to thank Bob Berthiselfor our theme music, our sponsor,
Better Rate Mortgage, ourguest Tim Warrick and co host Mark
Langston. And we thank youlisteners for being a part of our
community of curious minds.St. Louis in tune is a production
(43:19):
of Motif Media Group and theUS Radio Network. Remember to keep
seeking, keep learning, walkworthy and let your light shine.
For St. Louis in tune, I'mArnold Stricker.
He started singing at age 4and at age 12 was in a barbershop
quartet. And over the years hehas worked and learned from many
barbershop greats and hasachieved international recognition
in his craft. He was selectedto be the fantasy tenor, unquote,
a fantasy gold quartet, andwas inducted into the Barbershop
Harmony Society's hall ofFame. He is a recording artist with
(00:24):
several albums and he's aneducator. He's the one behind timtrax,
a music production company.You can watch his Tim tags on social
media. Tim Warwick's his name,and he's one of the few barbershop
enthusiasts who's managed toturn his hobby into a profession.
He's a tenor who's known forhis long notes and stratospheric
range. Just like this, folks.
(00:46):
No one sings higher no onesings higher no one sings higher
no one sings higher than.
(01:32):
Welcome to St. Louis in Tune.And thank you for joining us for
fresh perspectives on issuesand events with experts, community
leaders and everyday peoplewho make a difference in shaping
our society and world. I'mArnold Stricker along with co host
Mark Langston, who is onassignment today. We are glad that
you've joined us today, folks.We want to thank our sponsor, Better
Rate Mortgage, for theirsupport of the show. You can listen
(01:55):
to previousshows@stlandtune.com please help
us continue to grow by leavinga review on our website, Apple Podcast,
or your preferred podcastplatform. We're going to skip our
thought to ponder todaybecause our guest has been waiting
in the wings and I wanted tomention this was my introduction
(02:15):
to our guest. If you missedthe opening, you have to go back
and catch that. But this wasmy opening to our guest, Tim Worth.
Listen to this.
Cornbread, cornbread,cornbread, corn bread.
(03:01):
Tim Warrick, welcome to St.Louis in Tune. The hair on the back
of my neck still stands.
Thanks, Arnold. Great to be here.
Oh my gosh. I heard that and Iwas like, you've got to be kidding
me. You've got to be kiddingme. I've got a music ed degree just
like you and I was amazed atjust your range and the fortitude
(03:23):
in which you perform. Wheredid this all start? How did this
all start for you?
I started as a kid in middleschool. I started singing barbershop
music back then. And then overthe years I just continued to do
it through school, throughhigh school, and then into college.
Actually ended up going toLindenwood University out St. Charles
and started singing in acourse called the Ambassadors of
(03:46):
Harmony and joined a Quartetcalled Vocal Spectrum. So the Ambassadors
of Harmony have gone on to winmultiple international chorus championships
in my quartet. Vocal Spectrumhappened to win the International
Quartet contest back in 2006.So we've been together for about
22, 23 years now. So it's beena long time. But yeah, that's how
(04:08):
it started. And I just. I'vehad the opportunity to work with
some amazing, amazing people.Dr. Jim Henry, who is a professor
at UMSL now, was my professorat Lindenwood for a while. And he's
one of the directors of theAmbassadors of Harmony. And just
a great coach for us andreally helped us shaped my musical
abilities in many ways, butworked really hard at it. And yeah,
(04:29):
it's been something I'veworked at for a long time. Really
blessed to be able to keepsinging for all these years.
Acapella work has really madea resurgence over the last maybe
15, 20 years with groups likeTake Six. And you recently were singing
with Voctive, which is afavorite group of mine. And what
a great group of folks. And Iwant to come back now, come back
(04:51):
to that one. But what is itabout barbershop harmony or barbershop
quartet or singing thisacapella like you've done the Stars
and Stripes where you're doingall the parts and things like that.
What is it about that kind ofmusic that really appeals to our
ears?
I think first of all, there'sa certain excitement in barbershop
music. It's four parts,obviously, acapella. One thing that
(05:14):
barbershop does that a lot ofother styles of acapella I don't
think do as well is completechords. Sometimes you'll just have
a lot of three part chords andother forms of acapella. And in barbershop
we use a lot of seventhchords. We make sure that the voicings
are really strong. So I thinkthat's just one aspect of barbershop
that's really cool. I alsothink the barbershop is pretty accessible.
(05:34):
If you can sing, then you cansing barbershop singing. And at the
same time, singing barbershopat the highest level is really challenging.
It takes a lot of work andprecision. So I think it's really
cool because barbershop isaccessible to the very average singer,
the non professional singer.And at the same time, it's something
(05:55):
that just takes an incredibleamount of skill to pull off at the
highest level.
So when you were going from my.
Dog is what's that?
Your dog's trying to sing too?Yes. What's to get in on the action.
Yes. Snoring away. Sorry.
No worries. When you went fromthe Ambassadors of Harmony and you
(06:18):
were here in the St. Louisarea for about 15 years, and you
went back to Pennsylvania, andyou've traveled around the country
and you've traveledinternationally in getting all of
the groups together. And howdo you find a group or how do you
click with a group like, gee,we're looking for a first tenor.
Or I'm sure you sing firsttenor, but you sing all the parts.
(06:40):
I know that. But you're mainlya first tenor, correct? Yeah.
The part that I sing in myquartet is the top tenor part. In
barbershop, we have fourparts. There's the tenor part, which
is the highest part. There'sthe lead part, which is the melody.
And that's something that'salso pretty. Pretty special about
barbershop, is that the leadis the second voice down, and that's
(07:02):
the melody. It's almost alwaysthere. Often in choral music, you'll
hear the tenor part or the toppart being the melody. And barbershop
is a little different fromthere. We have the bass down at the
bottom, and then the baritonesings the leftover notes. And in
Barber shop, the baritone cansing really high or really low. It
depends on the song. But,yeah, I only sing with my quartet
(07:24):
vocal spectrum. I've subbed inwith other groups. I've subbed in
with other barbershop groups.Obviously, I'm a sub for voctive,
which is so much fun. But,yeah, having traveled around and
seen other groups, the way tojoin it is mainly through finding
a chorus. And then you putyour own quartets together. That
way you meet people and you doit that way. Some people just really
enjoy singing in choruses, andsome people want to do more and sing
(07:48):
in quartets and choruses. Andso it's really cool. Barbershops,
just. You can barbershop theway you want to. That's sort of how
it works.
Barbershop smorgas. Smorgasbord.
Exactly.
What was it like singing withvoctive? That's a group that we've
talked about and actuallyplayed some of the music on the show
here before.
They're incredible. You havethese 11 professional musicians,
(08:11):
and everybody is just a masterof their voice. They know what they're
doing. They know how to do it.And it's just very virtuosic. Like,
you have these amazingsopranos that can sing into the stratosphere
and basses who can sing as lowas possible. And then, of course,
the main one of the one of myfavorite singers in the group is
EJ who sings the tenor onepart. And he can sing basically as
(08:35):
high as a tenor can ever sing.And it's effortless and free, and
it's so good. So for me tohave the opportunity to just fit
my voice into that group is.Has been an honor whenever I've had
the opportunity sub with thema couple times or rehearse with them
a couple times a year. So it'sa lot of fun to be able to sing with
them when I have theopportunity to do it, because they're
(08:56):
incredible, just amazing.
When did you realize that yourrange was pretty much out of sight?
I know you probably go intofalls that you can go way, way up
there beyond stratosphere. Andyou also sing. You have the ability
to get down in low and somelow bass parts. When did you experiment?
(09:17):
Or wow, I can't believe I cando that.
It might have been toward thebeginning of college was when I just
was singing something and Itried to sing at an octave higher
and it came out pretty well.And I think it was actually the lead
of my quartet. His name isEric Dowdy. And Eric was. Whoa. Like,
that's really high. Like, youcould sing like soprano notes and
(09:37):
stuff like that. And. And sothat was just one of those things.
And for a long time when my. Iwent through a really difficult voice
change. So I was able to singbass in high school because I was
having such a difficult timewith my voice changing. I was cracking.
And there are two things thathappen. Number one, I continued to
sing barbershop, and I was atenor in my quartet. So I can. I
(09:59):
really wanted to keep singingtenor. So I went from this child
kid full voice tenor as a kidinto more. Maybe a falsetto tenor,
maybe a little more of thatmixed falsetto tenor while I was
going through my voice change.And it was just one of those things
where I kept singing in thatrange when my voice changed and my
(10:22):
voice. My middle school choirteacher was a big help into giving
me voice lessons and helpingme through that voice change. And
so while that was happening, Icontinued to sing in the really high
range. And I think as aresult, I kept a lot of the high
notes that I had as a child asfar as being able to sing really
(10:42):
and mix and stuff like that atthe same time. Because my voice change
was so bad and I couldn'treally sing in more of a full voice
tenor range. I sang bass orbaritone in choir in my regular classical
choir in high school. So for Acouple years there, I honed my bass
singing while I was alsoworking at my high falsetto. And
(11:06):
then as the voice changedslowly, it was a long, horrible voice
change.
But.
Realized, okay, wait, I canalso sing a little bit higher in
the tenor range too, and alittle more of a full sound. So I
started to work on refiningthat a little bit too. So it just
all worked together over theyears between this horrible voice
(11:28):
change turned into a realblessing for me as far as range goes,
because I somehow kept my bassrange and my soprano range and then
was able to get my tenor rangeback into decent shape over the years.
And so if I were to actuallyclassify my voice type, I would probably
say I'm more of a tenor twothan a tenor one. I can sing tenor
(11:50):
one notes, but I prefer tosing tenor two because it fits a
little more comfortably in myrange. Like, on a regular basis,
that's what I've filled in.When I filled in with vocative, I've
done 10 or two. And so, yeah,that's how that has worked. And as
I've gotten older, my bassrange continues to grow. And then
you just work hard to keep thehigh range going. So, yeah, it's
just one of those things thatjust happened naturally as I was
(12:14):
growing up. And so I reallyencourage. Whenever I see somebody
who's in high school or middleschool and they're. You can tell
they're either about to gothrough the voice change or they
are in the middle of it, andthen they talk about it, I always
tell them, keep singing yourhigh range, work on your low range,
but keep working on that highrange, because you will really be
able to keep a lot of those. Ithink you should be able to keep
(12:34):
a lot of those high notes ifyou continue to use them. Yeah.
I was going to ask you. I'm aninstrumentalist, so I wouldn't have
the answer to this question.That's why I'm asking you. You're
a vocalist. Is the developmentof your vocal cords at that time
during the change, was thatstrengthening them? Was. I know you
can stretch them, which causessome voice problems, but does doing
that during that time of thevoice change, is there a physiological
(12:58):
kind of situation that goes on there?
I wish I could give you theanswer. I don't really know other
than I just believe that a lotof people, when they go through their.
Through a voice change, theyjust lose their high range and they
stop. They just go. And thenthey can't do it. So they're just
staying low. And then afterthat's done, they have to redevelop
their higher range. That's allI know is that I believe that it
(13:22):
is a muscle. And keeping themuscle moving and keeping the muscle
in that, able to stretch intothat range is, I think, was really
beneficial for me.
This is Arnold Stricker withMark Langston of St. Louis and Tune.
We're talking to Tim Warrick.He's a singer, vocal coach, recording
artist, music educator, andmember of the Barbershop Harmony
(13:45):
Society's hall of Fame. What agreat honor that was.
Oh, I couldn't believe it. Ithought to myself, isn't that what
is. A lot of people that go inthere are a bit older than me. So
when I was told that I wasgoing in, I thought, this doesn't
feel right.
Pinch yourself.
I've got more to do. I feellike I have more to do. And, yeah,
(14:07):
interestingly, I was notifiedthat I was going in to the Barbershop
hall of Fame prior to me everputting out a video on YouTube or
Instagram or TikTok, Facebook,any of that stuff. All of those tag
videos that I've done havecome out since I was told I was going
into the hall of Fame. It wasright at the exact time. Was right
(14:28):
around that time when thathappened. And I remember thinking
to myself, wow, I'm just doingthis new thing. I feel like I've
got more new things to do.And, yeah, like I said, a lot of
older people are the ones thatgo in. I joked. I was like, is that,
like, a hint? Are you, like,telling me it's time to be done?
Yeah, but now it's. But it wasreally cool. And then the following
year, my quartet was alsohonored to go into the hall of Fame
(14:49):
as well. So really honored tohave had that opportunity, both personally
and also with local spectrum.
That's a huge deal. That's ahuge deal, Tim, because you think
of how many barbershopquartets are out there, and I know
folks, you might not thinkthere's many. I know there's a lot,
and it's a fun thing to singin. And then when you get to the
(15:12):
point where you'reinternationally recognized individually
and then in your group,that's. That's tremendous, Tim.
Thank you. It really does meana lot because they really only induct
one to two, maybe three atmost people and. Or groups occasionally.
Groups tend to go in maybeevery five, six years. There aren't
(15:33):
there? I think there are atotal of maybe 14 or 13 quartets
that have ever been inductedinto the hall of Fame. And so it's
just really a cool honor tohave that, to have people think that
we've done or I've donesomething significant in this genre.
It means a lot because youdon't really set out to do that.
You don't really set out tosay, oh, I want to go into the hall
(15:55):
of Fame and I want to do allthese things. You just do what you
do, right. And hope it makes adifference and hope that. And you
do what you do. Because youenjoy it too. Because I love it.
I've always enjoyed it. Soit's not something that I've done
because I have aspirations ofgrandeur. It's just it started as
a hobby and became a bit moreof a profession. But it's always
remained a hobby for me aswell, which is interesting.
(16:17):
Now I want to play something.And this is from one of your Tim
tracks. And folks, you can seeTim's information. Tim work. I'll
give his email. That's not hisemail. I'll give his website out.
It's Timtracks.com T I M T R AC K S dot com and you can catch some
of these on also on manysocial media platforms. But let's
(16:38):
listen to this one.
If you miss the train I'm onyou will know that I am gone. You
can hear the whistle blow ahundred miles, a hundred miles.
(17:17):
I love watching you sing too.And folks, you have to look at it.
You have to watch him. He'sgot all four parts going and you
see his face. And what's evenbetter than singing with your siblings
is singing with yourself.
I guess it is fun and I lovesinging and it's fun to sing. Sometimes
(17:39):
they're really old songs andsometimes they're newer songs. And
I guess that one's kind of inthe middle somewhere. The Peter,
Paul and Mary song.
How do you go about doing oneof your Tim tracks? How long does
it take you to get all fourparts? You basically, okay, I've
got that one down. I can sightsing that one. And now you've got
worked out their phrasing andwhich one do you record first? And
(18:00):
et cetera, et cetera. Walk usthrough that.
Yeah, the first thing I do isI'll record the lead part, the melody
almost always. And so that'llbe the first thing I do is. But before
that I'll look at the song orI'll look at the piece and I'll just
say, okay, what's the processhere? What's what Do I want to do
with this? And often I willcreate a little plan for myself.
(18:23):
I. When I'm recording alearning track now I have, obviously
I have my Tim tags that I puton YouTube, but also I have 1500
learning tracks that I'verecorded over the years. When I'm
doing a learning track, we'llsay no video. I'll sight read it,
I'll give it a little bit of alook. I'll make sure I have an understanding
of what the overall song is,what the arc is of the song, how
I want to work on it musicallyand expressively at the same time.
(18:46):
But then, then I'll record itand I go, I'll record until I'm unhappy
and then I'll go back and doit and eventually I get to the point
where I'm reasonably happywith it. And then the next, the next
one I'll do is the bass.Depending on the song these days,
depending on the song, I mightdo it in the morning, I might do
it the next morning because Ijust. Even though I can sing decently
(19:06):
low, like throughout the day,in the morning I feel like I'm just
a bit more resonant and my lowrange is just a little stronger.
Over the years, especiallywhen I was younger, I always recorded
bass in the morning. And now Istill do, but I don't have to as
much, but I definitely leantoward that. And then from there
I work with the baritone andtenor parts, normally baritone and
then the tenor. And that'll bemy routine of doing that. Then from
(19:29):
there I'll go through and justmake sure everything is right. I
make sure I didn't miss anynotes and stuff like that. So I really
try to take good care to makesure that I've not missed anything.
Because when you're.Especially when you're sight reading,
it's just easy to miss stuff.And then. Yeah, and then from there
I just, I try to do a littlebalancing, make sure the balance
is good, add some reverb andsome EQ and all that jazz. And that's
(19:52):
kind of it. The overallprocess to record a learning track
is probably somewhere aroundsix hours or so. For the videos.
I memorize the part and recordit and the video and then. Yeah,
and then I actually will takethe audio and the video and we'll
put it all together. Because Ilike to make sure the audio has all
of the reverb. I just, I likeprefer it that way. So I always do
(20:15):
it that way. And so yeah, theprocess normally lead then bass Then
baritone, then tenor. Andthat's the overall quick process
for what I do for recordingthese tracks.
I appreciate that you also putthe music on there so you can actually
see what's going on.
Yeah, initially I didn't, butthen some people were stealing that.
(20:35):
They were taking the videothat I did and then adding music
and putting it on their ownchannels. What? And I remember one.
I remember. Yeah, there's one.And it's still out there. It has
well over as 1.5 millionviews. It's my video, but they put
the sheet music on it and cameup with a clever title. And it has
three times the views that myvideo has.
(20:57):
Oh, my.
And at the same time, itdefinitely gave me exposure. And
so I think. I don't think itwas done maliciously, but I realized,
wait. People really like tolook at the music, so let me just
start adding it. And so I tryto add it to almost every video that
I do, just because I thinkit's another piece that is interesting
(21:17):
for people to watch. If peoplewant to watch me, that's fine. Or
they want to look at themusic, even better.
You've got a great face, andit's. I can tell you are really into
the music. And folks, you gotto watch these videos because you
really express what's goingon, especially when you're doing.
I'm going to play this one,especially something like this.
(21:37):
Ice cream. Ice cream.
Ice cream. Ice cream. Icecream. Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice
(22:09):
cream. Ice cream. Ice cream.
(22:35):
Now you heard this big thumpat the end. You have to watch that
and see what happened to Tim.
That was. So I had donecornbread, and everyone's like, you
got to do another food one.And I was really very thankful that
cornbread was featured onAmerica's Funniest Home Videos in
earlier this year. And so Ithought, now is a good time to do
(22:57):
another food one. So I putanother food one out for ice Cream.
It was the set, the originalquartet that sang that the music
man, the ice cream bit was theBuffalo Bills. The Buffalo Bills.
It was their 75th anniversaryof when they won the International
Quartet Championship.
Wow.
And my quartet vocal spectrum,we actually got to do that at the
Muni. We sang the part of thequartet in 2009. We were the barbershop
(23:20):
quartet there at the Muni. Sothat was a lot of fun. But of course,
had to add a little bit at theend. I had to make the big long note
and. And have a little fun.There's actually Ice Cream in the
video that's right. You haveto watch the video. There's actually
ice cream. I went throughmultiple ice cream cones on this
video, unfortunately.
So how many Tim tracks are out there?
(23:42):
Tim tracks?
Yeah. How many?
I've done. I know I've donesomewhere around.
Not counting the learningtracks. Not counting the learning
track.
The learning tracks is like1500, but the actual videos, I've
done probably about 215 videos.
Okay.
Over the past few years, it'sbeen just about four years that I've
done this. I do one a week.Occasionally I'll do a bonus one,
(24:02):
but for the most part it's onea week. And yeah, almost four years
ago is when I started puttingout these videos.
That's a lot of work. We'regoing to take a quick break and we
will be right back, folks.This is Arnold Strick with Mark Langston.
You're listening to St. Louisin Tune on the U.S. radio Network.
(24:28):
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you really need to turn thatperfect house into your dream home
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This is Arnold Stricker of St.Louis in tune on behalf of the Dred
Scott Heritage Foundation. In1857, the Dred Scott decision was
a major legal event andcatalyst that contributed to the
Civil War. The decisiondeclared that Dred Scott could not
(25:12):
be free because he was not acitizen. The 14th Amendment was also
called the Dred ScottAmendment, granted citizenship to
all born or naturalized herein our country and was intended to
overturn the US Supreme Courtdecision on July 9, 1868. The Dred
Scott Heritage foundation isrequesting a commemorative stamp
to be issued from the USPostal Service to recognize and remember
(25:33):
the heritage of this amendmentby issuing a stamp with the likeness
of the man Dred Scott. But weneed your support and the support
of thousands of people whowould like to see this happen. To
achieve this goal, we ask youto download, sign and share the one
page petition with others. Tofind the petition, please go to dredscottlives.org
and click on the Dred Scottpetition drive on the right side
(25:53):
of the page. On behalf of theDred Scott Heritage foundation, this
has been Arnold Stricker of.
St. Louis in June.
Do.
Every time that I look in themirror all these lines on my face
(26:23):
get clearer the past is goneit went by like.
Welcome back to St. Louis inTune. This is Arnold Stricker with
Mark Langston. We're talkingto Tim Warwick, singer, vocal coach,
(26:45):
recording artist, musiceducator and member of the Barbershop
Harmony Society's hall ofFame. Aerosmith needs to listen to
this. What do you think, Tim?
This was a lot of fun.
This isn't just four. This iswhat, eight?
Oh, yeah. Somewhere aroundeight or so. Maybe even a couple
(27:07):
more, if I remember correctlyrecorded it. It was originally done
by. Arranged. Arranged. Thevocal arrangement was done by Gary
Lewis and it was originallydone for the. There's a show that
we always have all thechampion quartets. We always do a
championship show at theinternational convention every. That's
held every year in a differentcity. And that song was sung. That
(27:31):
was one of the songs we didwhen we were in Cleveland. We did
a little Rock and Roll hall ofFame tribute there. And yeah, by
the way, just so you all know,the International Barbershop Convention
is going to be in St. Louisthis coming July, the first week
of July. And more informationis@Barbershop.org that's a little
ad there. And I make nothingoff of that, by the way. But for
(27:52):
those of you interested inchecking out the best the barbershop
go, either barbershop.org oreventually more information will
be available for the AIC,which is the championship organization.
And that'll be held Fridaynight. I believe it's Friday night.
Is it July 4th? Maybe I'mwrong on that, but yeah, that'll
be held almost. Let me seehere. Looks like July. The. Where
(28:18):
are we? Okay, sorry. There wego. July here in St. Louis. I'll
be singing on a show down inthe city. I think the venue is just
about to be announced. Itshould be really a great show. And
I'll also be singing in St.Louis this coming December. It'll
be December. The I'm givingyou the day here. December 12th,
(28:38):
13th and 14th as part of theAmbassadors of Harmony Christmas
shows. Every year, theAmbassadors of Harmony puts on an
amazing Christmas show,holiday show, and my quartet, vocal
spectrum will be singing onthose shows. There's one Friday night,
one on Saturday afternoon, oneon Saturday night and one on Sunday
afternoon. I think moreinformation is probably ambassadorsofharmony.org
(28:59):
I believe it'll be at the Two Hill.
Okay.
Definitely worth checking out.It's a lot of fun and really great.
Gets you in the spirit of theseason, for sure.
Yeah, we will advertise thoseon the POD page.
Yeah, please do. Becausethey're great. They're my. One of
my favorite shows of the yearare those Ambassadors of Harmony
Christmas shows.
(29:20):
Talk a little bit about thelearning tracks that you do and get
into some specifics becauseI'm sure there's some people who
are listening who are like,yeah, I want to excel a little bit
more in the barbershop quartetrealm. Or maybe there's some up and
coming folks who would like todelve into it a little bit deeper.
What is. What do those provideand what exactly do they do for people?
(29:45):
The learning tracksthemselves, those. So those are meant
as educational tools. It's tohelp people learn their part. So
if you ever sing along with asong on the radio, and then eventually
you know the song, you canjust sing it because you've learned
it by ear. That's whatlearning tracks do. They really assist
in learning your part. Soespecially in barbershop, it gets
(30:06):
a little challenging.Especially the baritone parts are
a little all over the place.So it really gives you the opportunity
to hear parts. My goal is tocreate a recording that isn't just
the right notes and words, buthopefully a bit more of the expression
that we would be going for,some of the dynamics and hopefully
the best vocal quality we cancome up with. So that's a goal is
(30:31):
to have a. A tool that you canuse to learn your parts. And so that's
what the goal of learningtracks are. They can be used for
people who don't read music.So if you can't read music, you can
still learn your part if youcan learn it by just listening. There
are tracks where you have yourpart in your left ear and the other
three parts in the right ear.There are some where I have an offer
(30:53):
where you don't have your partat all.
So you.
If you've learned it, you canstrengthen it by just singing against
those recordings. I've usedthose often when I've filled in with
groups or whatever. I willtake the part missing track where
it has just three parts, andthen I'll sing my part with it to
help me replicate the feelingof singing with a quartet. And then,
of course, I also have thepart predominant where you can just
(31:15):
listen to your part mostlyloud and learn your notes. Now that
works for people who don'tread music at all. So there are so
many people out there in greatgroups, like the best groups, and
they don't know how to readmusic at all. They just learn this
way.
Wow.
But then it also can reallyhelp. For me, I would use it to just
listen and I can sight read.So I will look at the music and I
(31:38):
will play the track at thesame time. And it speeds up my process
because. Right. I don't. Ijust. I can hear it and I can look
at it and I get it reallyquickly. Yeah. Learning tracks are.
The goal is to really enhancethe learning process. A, it'll help
everybody learn their notefaster. And then B, as they start
singing in their chorus orquartet, the hope is that you come
(31:59):
in with a higher level ofunderstanding of the song, maybe
a higher level of expression,maybe some good vocal tools, so that
when you come in, it'sactually better than it could have
ever been if you had juststood around with the music and started
singing through the song.
What a great service you'reoffering with that. That's available
on TimTrax.com.
(32:20):
Yeah, everything. That's allavailable on TimTrax.com and, yeah,
it's something that I've beendoing now for almost 23 years, which
is crazy.
Holy smoke.
A friend of mine asked me todo it because he was. I do them for
high voices, too, for SSAA orwomen's voices. He directed a woman's
chorus and he was trying torecord the learning tracks for them.
(32:40):
He was trying to help themlearn their music because a lot of
them couldn't read it. And sohe eventually came to me, he said,
hey, you can sing. Hi. Can youdo that? Do that for me? Because
it's not going so well. Andthat was how it all started. And
then word of mouth spread.Eventually a website came up and
off we go. So, yeah, it's beena long time and a lot of recording
(33:00):
over the years now.
Where do you come up with allthese arrangements? I know there's
barbershop quartet arrangersout there. Have you ever arranged
anything?
I have arranged a few songs,but not a lot. I would say that my.
I'm primarily just recordingother people's arrangements. There
are great arrangers out in thebarbershop farming society, and many
(33:22):
of them. So, for instance, weuse. One example is Dr. David Wright,
who used to be. I know for along time he was a math professor
there at WashingtonUniversity, was the chair of the
math department at one point.And David is The greatest barbershop
arranger of all time, in my opinion.
Wow.
Done a lot of the arrangementsfor my quartet through the Ambassadors
of Harmony and many othergroups throughout the world. So someone.
(33:46):
So there's either twoprocesses. One, a group will go to
David and say, hey, David, canyou arrange this song for me? And
then he'll do it, or B, he'llalready have done it for somebody
over the years. And the groupwill say, oh, we really like that
arrangement that David did. Wethink that'll fit for our group.
Let's buy that and then let'shave Tim record the tracks for it.
(34:08):
So that's the process as agroup will come to me with an arrangement
already intact from anarranger, and they'll say, can you
record this? Often it's brandnew. Often the arranger just finished
doing it. And then sometimespeople will have an older arrangement
that someone had done previousyears, and they'll say, hey, actually,
we want to sing this song now.And often arrangers will make that
(34:30):
piece available for otherpeople to sing. So that's how that
process works of me gettingthe music and getting the arrangement.
Very rarely am I the one thatsays, hey, I want to record this
song, because I have peoplecoming to me to commission me to
do learning tracks. So that'show this has worked over the years.
If someone will come to me andcommission me and say, oh, we'd like
(34:50):
you to do the learning tracksfor this song. And I'll. Then I'll
record them and eventuallyafter a period of time, I'll put
them up on my website forresale and people will then find
them and they'll go to thearranger and say, oh, we want to
sing the song too. And it'sjust how it works. So, yeah, pretty
fun little model that we havethere going.
You found a great lane. Itseems like this was something that
(35:13):
was not out there and peoplewere hungry for something like this
and really needing somethinglike that.
Yeah, a lot of. Like I talkedabout, barbershop is so accessible
to the average cigarette, tothe person who has never taken a
voice lesson, who's never sungin a choir, but it's AKA same barbershop.
But maybe they don't know howto read music at all. They have this
(35:34):
tool where they can listen toit and they can learn their part
and come in and actually knowwhat their. Know what their part
is, even if they couldn't tellyou what note it is on the page.
Now, you've answered aquestion for those who aspiring barbershop
quartet singers or those whowere involved in currently with some
of your Tim track things andsome of the advice that you've given.
(35:55):
What advice do you give tothis? The budding singer, whether
they're going to be involvedin barbershop or not, or whether
they're going to become just aregular chorus singer in their high
school or maybe going on tocollege or maybe wanting to sing
an opera or something likethat. What advice do you give Tim?
Number one, I would say find agreat voice teacher and work with
(36:17):
them. If you want to sing forthe long haul, that is the best way
is to find a good voiceteacher who helps you sing freely
and easily and where itdoesn't hurt, if it feels good and
it's. It works well. And Iwould definitely say get a voice
teacher. And then from there Iwould say just try to take good care
of your voice. There are alltypes of things environmentally that
(36:40):
can impact your voice, whetherit be allergies or acid reflux or
alcohol or different thingscan really affect your voice. So
just try to get a gauge ofwhat impacts your voice and try to
work through that andunderstand what that is and yeah,
and don't beat your voice upbecause you only get one and so take
(37:05):
care of it. Scream a lot at aWhen I go to a baseball game or a
football game or whatever, Iclap a lot. I don't scream.
Why?
Because I don't want to hurt myself.
Wise We've been talking to TimWarrick. He's a singer, vocal coach,
recording artist, musiceducator, member of the Barbershop
Harmony Society's hall ofFame. You can find out more about
(37:26):
tim@timtrax.com t I m t r a ck s.com and also check him out on
social media. He's on FacebookTikTok. He's on Instagram. He's on
YouTube. I will post all thoseon the podcast page. Tim, thank you.
Thank you very much for comingon St. Luis and tune. Greatly appreciate
talking to you and listeningto all your insights about barbershop
(37:48):
quartet and barbershop harmony.
My pleasure, Arnold. It's justbeen great to be here and great to
just chat and hang out.
Sounds great. Thank you, Tim.
Thank you.
Wow, folks, what a wonderfulguest and musician Tim Warrick is.
He's a great guy. Want toencourage you to go to his website,
contribute to him. He does.This is his business. This is how
(38:09):
he makes his livelihood. Andif you feel so inclined, he's got
a Patreon site which we willpost on the podcast page. Please
Feel free to donate to that.It's important to support excellent
things. Tim does an excellentjob in what he does. When you see
excellent things around, it'simportant to take time, review them,
listen to them, watch them,acknowledge them, and thank the people
(38:32):
who've done them. Because it'simportant to do that. I want to play
one more song here that Timhas done.
O Danny boy the pipes, thepipes are calling from glen to glen
and down the mountainside thesummer's gone and all the roses fall
(39:03):
falling it's you, it's youmust go and I must bide and I must
bide but come ye back whensummer's in the meadow or when the
(39:29):
valley's high and white withsnow It's I'll be here in sunshine
(39:52):
or in shadow. O Jenny boy, OJenny boy, I love you so. But when
(40:21):
you come and all the flowersare dying, if I am dead, as dead
I well may be, you'll come andfind the place where I am lying and
(40:50):
kneel and say.
And.
Of ae there for me and I shallhear those soft you tread above.
Me.
(41:12):
And O my grave will warmersweeter be for you will bend and
tell me that you love me.
(41:49):
And.
I shall sleep in peace untilyou come to me, O daddy boy, O daddy
boy, O I love.
(42:17):
You.
So.
Want to thank Tim War for histime today on St. Louis in Tune.
Folks, we appreciate youtaking time to spend this hour with
(42:38):
us and listening to Tim talkabout his career and the things that
he's doing to encouragesinging and barbershop harmony around
the world. That's all for thishour. We want to thank you for listening.
If you've enjoyed thisepisode, you can listen to additional
shows@stluntune.com considerleaving a review on our website,
(42:59):
Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, oryour preferred podcast platform.
Your feedback helps us reachmore listeners and continue to grow.
We want to thank Bob Berthiselfor our theme music, our sponsor,
Better Rate Mortgage, ourguest Tim Warrick and co host Mark
Langston. And we thank youlisteners for being a part of our
community of curious minds.St. Louis in tune is a production
(43:19):
of Motif Media Group and theUS Radio Network. Remember to keep
seeking, keep learning, walkworthy and let your light shine.
For St. Louis in tune, I'mArnold Stricker.
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