What is a Glee Club

A brief history

What is a Glee Club? 

It's a place to come for two hours a week and just LET GO! Be yourself, relax, sing, dance, laugh and meet new friends. You'll leave with a smile on your face and a buzz that will stay with you until your next session. 

For those a little more intrepid, a little history.... 

By definition, a Glee Club is a group organised to sing short choral works, especially part songs. Nowadays, Glee Clubs, or show choirs as they are often known in the US, have expanded on this idea. They will frequently combine pop songs with dance routines, high in energy and sometimes acrobatic, to create a stunning visual and auditory experience for those watching and listening. Clubs are to be found in many educational establishments, particularly American high school and colleges. They are also now springing up all over the place as friends get together to sing and dance on a social level.

The advent and huge success of the US hit TV show GLEE has firmly put the idea of the Glee Club back in the public eye and ear and made it a household name. The glitz and glam of the all-singing, all-dancing troupe of American high school kids has lifted the genre to new heights. The global effect has been staggering and immediate.

The origins of the glee club are not altogether so glamorous, or American. In fact the first named glee club on record was founded at Harrow School in England in 1787 and such clubs were widely popular in the UK until the middle of the next century when they were gradually superseded by the choral society. At this point, Glee Clubs began to appear across the Atlantic in American universities.

The word GLEE has two distinct meanings. The first describes a feeling of intense delight and joy. The second denotes a particular type of English part song for male voices, often in three or four parts, that was popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Thus "glee club" was a gathering of people to sing "glees" or short part songs, rather than like minded people congregating to share an intense sense of delight. That said, a nice balance is drawn between the two definitions as most people involved with Glee Clubs and Glee Club UK in particular do walk away with a overall feeling of well-being as well as having sung songs in three and four part harmony!

Glee Club UK™ is a new system of sharing glee in a large group environment where everyone is welcome and everyone is equal. Through bespoke musical and vocal arrangements that are simple to learn, and movement that is also straight forward but effective, whole communities can enjoy the group spirit of glee. Since this system is the same at each Glee Club UK™ branch, you can transfer clubs when you move house with little or no disruption to your enjoyment of glee and also maybe enjoy internal country-wide competitions at sectional and regional levels!