Apparently this is far from the case, as recent TV shows The Choir and Last Choir Standing showed.

Far from being classically-trained musicians, most of the singers were average Joes who wouldn't know a semi quaver from an octave.

This is also the case with many of the members of The Peers Of Harmony, which meets once a week at St Peter's Church Hall, in Moor Lane, Harton.
Dad-of-two, Jeff Dawson, was keen to point out that his musical experience was next to naught when he joined two years ago.

"I've never done any formal singing. One of my friends who does singing suggested I came," said Jeff, from South Shields.

"I enjoyed it so much I'm still here. It's great fun," said the sales director for a concrete company, who now does much of Harmony's public relations.

Though the choral group has some 24 members – most from South Tyneside – they are in the process of a recruitment drive to attract more youngsters, as Jeff explained.

"We're interested in getting more people involved. It's not an old person's pursuit. It's something for everyone.

"A lot of young people want to get involved, but don't know how to do it. The 2008 National Barbershop Quartet champions have an average age of just 23."

This led nicely to my second surprise of the day. Like a Russian doll, the larger choir has a smaller one within it – the barbershop quartet made up of Geoff Ramsey, Mike Kimber, Eddie Evans and Peter Jones, who will compete in the British Association of Barbershop Singers national championships in Birmingham next month.

With each of them singing a certain range, the foursome are the human equivalent of Doe, Reh, Me, Far, So, La, Te, scale made famous by Julie Andrews and the prancing Von Trapp family in The Sound Of Music.

Peter, 62, who is a part-time pall bearer from Low Fell, in Gateshead, is the lead and acts as the 'melody' around whom the other three singers provide vocal harmony backing.

Listen to Take That and even Girls Aloud, these type of groups all harmonise in the same way.

Geoff ('Te boy') is the high tenor, while Eddie ('Doe Boy') provides the deep bass.

The baritone middle range is covered by Mike Kimber.

It sounds relatively simple, but you don't really appreciate what this means until you hear them sing. Or better still, try it yourself.

Sixty-nine-year-old Whitley Bay resident Eddie, having had some 32 years' experience in choirs, vehemently refuted my pronouncement that I didn't have a musical bone in my body.

"I don't believe anybody's tone deaf as most people can produce music," said the married dad of one, who is a retired lecturer at Gateshead College.

He did concede though, that the quality of a voice could be affected by many variables.

"It all depends on the body and the weather. If you are not too hot, have drank lots of water and are in good physical condition, you will sing better."

We were on the top floor of the Gazette building, which seemed neither too hot nor too cold.

I was well-hydrated and am in reasonably good physical shape. Let's get it on!

The song of choice? Where Is Love from the musical Oliver!

"I'm happy with that," I said, though I had no idea how it went.

Joining the quartet, they decided I should act as lead. Why?

"We listen to people's voices and try to encourage them to sing our melody line," Peter enlightened me.

"If they have a certain richness of voice, we will encourage them to sing either a bass or baritone line."

Mike Kimber then took out his pitch pipe, a circular kind of mouth organ through which the key for that piece of music can be played.

I tried the melody for a few bars, but it physically hurt to try to sing that high.

It reminded me of my time as a primary school teacher, when my tortured attempts to reach the high notes on Puff The Magic Dragon would scare local dogs for miles around. Apparently, I was more of a bass man.

That was much more like it, and after a while I could actually feel myself (forgive the painfully unfashionable 80s parlance) getting 'into the groove'.

"You're not tone deaf at all. You were modulating," Dave eulogised once we'd finished.

If by this he meant I was trying to alter my voice to harmonise with the other singers, then yes I was.

There's far more to singing than meets the ear, as I'd noticed when our quintet hit the meatier parts of the song.

For some reason it sounded like there were more than just the five of us singing.

"That happens with barbershop," Peter said with an enigmatic smile.

Mike, sensing my puzzled demeanour, took up the baton of explaining, and ran with it.

"You hit resonance together and you get more sound out of the voices. The whole is greater then the sum of the parts."

The group is not just about the quartet though, so they quickly joined the other members of the choir who had come to the Gazette office, to sing us out with a rousing rendition of Hello Mary Lou.

"The larger choirs are divided the same way, so it sounds like a quartet only with a larger sound," Jeff added.

"When we're all in harmony, it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up."

If you're interested in joining, call 07974 032661, or 07850 251699.