Welcome! The Northland Chapter of Sweet Adelines International is delighted to have you visit our site. Consider the red carpet rolled out to you! If you like to sing four-part barbershop harmony, make friends, and belong to an organization with incredible personal growth opportunities, then Sweet Adelines International is for you!

Our chapter was founded in 1974 and we have approximately 20-25 members at any given time. Our Director is Kathy Wattenbarger and our Team Leader is Peg Simmons. 

The highlight of our year is performing at Regional Competition in the spring. A second major event for us is our annual show, which we produce in the fall of each year. In addition to these activities, we welcome the opportunity to perform at community functions throughout the year.  

If this sounds like something you would be interested in trying, visit us at our next rehearsal, Thursdays at 7:15!

Antioch Community Church

4805 NE Antioch Rd.

Kansas City, MO 64119

We look forward to having you join us while we have a wonderful time singing our way to our goal to "Harmonize the World!"

Call Peg Simmons at 816/452-4302 or email her at  jpsimford@att.net for more information.

Northland Chorus Practice

Welcome to the wonderful world of barbershop singing!  You don’t need formal musical training to sing barbershop.  Most of our singers come to us having sung in school and college choirs as well as church choirs while a few have also played an instrument in the past.

On your first visit, you will be asked to fill out a brief questionnaire to provide us with your contact information and singing background.  You will be given a new member folder to take home with introductory information about Sweet Adelines and the Northland Chorus.

During your first visit, your voice will be evaluated informally by the Director and she will discuss past musical experience to determine which part you will be most comfortable singing (lead – melody; tenor – high harmony; bass – low harmony; baritone – harmony part sung in same range as lead). 

We start out rehearsal with some simple physical warm ups to get our musical instrument warmed up and relaxed.  We then follow up with vocal production exercises led by the Director to teach and hone our vocal skills – pitch, resonance, intervals, dynamics, vowel matching, etc.

You will be provided with music to use during the evening.  We do most of our singing on risers at our weekly rehearsals.  You will be placed on the risers next to an experienced singer who sings your part.

When new music is introduced, we spend 15 – 30 minutes in section rehearsals for several weeks with your part only as you listen to a learning CD to master the words and notes.  You will be provided with a learning CD to listen to at home to speed up learning the new music.  We then return to the risers to sing through the new song as a chorus, stopping to work on trouble spots. 

We also continue to work on the risers each week on songs in our current repertoire.  Once we’ve mastered the words and notes, we will work on the finer aspects of barbershop singing – coning, balance, vowels, interpretation, dynamics, etc.  This is where the fun really begins as the music comes to life!

On some up-beat songs (referred to as “uptunes”), we may also add “choreography.”  Don’t be intimated by that term – you don’t need to be able to dance.  In barbershop we just mean simple “planned movements” that will enhance the story, interpretation and dynamics of these songs.  Our choreography team will spend time at many rehearsals teaching and polishing these moves with the chorus so these moves are done easily, automatically and in unison with the entire chorus.

So that’s a typical rehearsal in a nutshell.  It’s a fun and educational evening spent with other women who share your love of singing.  So come join us and see what it’s all about!

 Northland – where good singing and
good fun go hand in hand!