ARLINGTON, Texas–At a time when musical artists are seeking to push past the conventions of their genres—or, as Beyoncé has elected to do, performing in a new genre altogether—AweDacity is an Arlington group dedicated to preserving the sounds of  barbershop quartet singing.

AweDacity has been performing for the citizens of Arlington for seven years.

A barbershop quartet is a specific type of a cappella singing.  The music features no instruments, and the parts are divided into tenor, lead, bass and baritone.  The tenor is the highest voice, the lead sings the melody, the bass is the lowest voice and the baritone fills in the rest of the notes.

According to the Barbershop Harmony Society, barbershop quartets have their history in African American culture.  Starting in the 1880s and 1890s, the black community began harmonizing popular songs of the day as well as spirituals and folk songs. Many of these early stars went on to pioneer jazz music.

Gil Carrick is a member of AweDacity, which itself is a part of a local chapter of The Barbershop Harmony Society.  They named their group after the audio-mixing software Audacity. The four men in their group have been together for seven years.

“I joined this chapter because my wife was pushing me to sing,” Carrick said. “I’ve sung all my life.”

He sings the bass in their group and added that “the baritone is crazy because you have to be crazy to sing that.”

Their local chapter, named “Good Times Chorus,” was founded in 1962 and had a total of 70 members at one time. But now the membership is about 25 to 30 singers. Traditionally, only men have been in barbershop quartets, but recently they have been encouraging women to join as well. Currently, there is one woman singer in the local chapter, and members said they hope she will stay with the group. The group has gone through some changes recently, including a new director, Ed Howard.

Learning a new song takes a lot of practice, both as a group and individually.  In order to learn a new song, the members use a learning track.

“I would guess about half of our guys can’t really read music,” Carrick said. “So we use a learning track.”

This track separates the four voices so that each singer can learn his part separately and then sing along with all the parts together.  This way, members of the group who can’t read music can still learn the parts.

One of the group’s main fundraisers are “Singing Valentines.”  This is where they dress up in black-tie attire and sing a personalized message to a couple or an individual. The recipient, usually a woman, also receives a card and a rose. The cost of the special valentines starts at $59.

Carrick said the group has seen plenty while delivering Singing Valentines. One time, they went to sing to a sergeant working at a police impound yard in Dallas.  The sergeant was embarrassed and the other police officers laughed at him.  Carrick also shared an awkward moment when they realized they were singing a message to a woman in a battered women’s shelter from her ex-husband. She was not happy about it and stared at them icily.

In addition to the Singing Valentines, the group also performs concerts or plays that include their barbershop quartet singing.