This women’s history month, we thought we’d take a look at some of the ways we try to accelerate action – both at work and beyond!
We met through our mutual love of singing! Lesley is the Musical Director of More Harmony Women’s Barbershop chorus and Emma acts as her Assistant, as well as being in charge of the Lead Section. Barbershop singing is a form of a cappella (i.e. singing with no backing tracks!) and is sung in four-part harmony.
Barbershop harmony has its roots in African-American traditions of the late 1800s, particularly in the southern states.
The close-harmony singing became so popular that it spread to the recording scene. Despite barbershop’s African-American roots, it was white quartets who brought it to a wider audience, as black quartets weren’t offered the same fair treatment by studios (thankfully times have changed since then!). It was also a scene dominated by men.
Indeed, the earliest barbershop societies and conventions were open to “MEN ONLY” and it wasn’t until 2018 that the Barbershop Harmony Society allowed women to become full members (having allowed them to become “associates” since 2009). In the UK, the British Association of Barbershop Singers came into existence in 1974 as a men-only organisation, with the Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers formed in 1976.
More Harmony Women’s Barbershop Chorus came into existence in 2010 and Lesley has been MD since 2016, with Emma attending a singing course in late 2017 and becoming a full member in January of 2018.
Together, our ethos has always been to provide a safe, supportive environment for all women to thrive, have fun and challenge themselves. Our membership features women from all kinds of backgrounds, each bringing their own unique life experiences and abilities to the table. Over the years, More Harmony members have competed at local and national music competitions and even travelled as far as Germany to perform!
Our passion for encouraging and supporting women remains as strong as ever.
As well as taking charge of web design, print design and social media for More Harmony, we’ve been proud to work with other female choruses around the UK, designing posters & banners, creating eye-catching logos and even producing music videos.
We also take pride in working with female-led businesses and organisations, designing websites to show off what they do and creating print and digital advertising materials for them to share. We’re huge believers that women can achieve anything they set out to do and we love helping female-led organisations reach their goals!
From joining marches to taking part in campaigns to support women’s rights – both in the UK and all over the world – we remain fully committed to doing whatever we can to raise awareness of women’s issues and to promote equality in all that we do.
We’re proud to be women running a small business and we will continue to raise our voices and use our creative skills wherever they are needed.
Ever had one of those days where all it takes is one person saying the wrong thing to totally push you over the edge? What about the reverse, where a kind word turns your mood around completely? The tone we take with others – and they with us – has a far greater impact than we might think. But what about your organisation’s tone of voice?
We’ve talked about the value of using video in your marketing plenty of times before but we’re usually the ones behind the camera, as well as doing the editing.
Whilst most of us are aware that creating legal policies or setting up mass production might be best left to the experts, we often tell ourselves that when it comes to designing flyers to advertise our organisation, or creating a logo for our new business, we can definitely do that ourselves. After all, how hard can it be?!
According to Siteefy there are over a billion websites in the world, with hundreds more created every minute. Standing out from a crowd that large when someone searches the web is a challenge. Google is miles ahead of the competition in number of users, with the first three results it provides getting most of the clicks. Reaching the top of that list is what Search Engine Optimisation is all about.
