We had a fantastic rehearsal last night! We have two main warm up drills that we use, and it usually takes us 5-10 minutes (sometimes longer) to get going and get our voices blending. But last night, holy cow. We hit the ground running. We did one warm-up, then went right into “That’s An Irish Lullabye”. This is a song that we had in our repertoire a number of years ago, and we just dusted it off last month.

And if I have to say so myself, it sounded great (the goosebumps were plentiful). I love singing with Brian, Chris and Kelly. We get along quite well (we don’t tell Chris that we actually don’t like him), and when we click, we click. We were listening to each other very well last night, and every chord was ringing.

We’re preparing for the Fox Valleyaires annual show, where we’ll do “Frog Kissin’”. This is a very fun song that we just added a bit of interp to, and I think we’ll have a blast singing it.

By the time rehearsal was over, it was obvious that we were singing best when we just relaxed, didn’t think too hard, and just enjoyed it.  Of course our rehearsal had to end with us watching the NCAA basketball championship on TV (Kansas beat Memphis).

We have a lot of fun when we’re together, and we hope that you’ll join us at the show in Appleton on Saturday.

We’ve been working pretty hard lately. We gave our 30 minute show a bit of an overhaul. A couple of new comedy bits, a couple new songs, and a few old favorites. It’s great when I say something off the cuff and Chris can’t sing cuz he’s laughing so hard. We’ve got a couple of trips coming up. In the next two months, we’ll be in Brookfield, Durand and Black River Falls. The travelling should be a lot of fun.
And of course we’ve got our first performance on the district contest stage in Rochester, MN in October. So much performing to do, so little time!

We just got back from a weekend of great coaching. The BHS LOL District holds these “mini harmony education programs” each June. Barbershoppers from all around the district converge on UW La Crosse to attend workshops and get some great coaching.

In addition to the coaches from BHS, an international quartet also participates, providing their own insight into how to best perform as a barbershop quartet.

Yesterday, we had 7 one-hour coaching sessions. Our coaches were Dan Heike, Rick Spencer, John Plazek, and Ron Rank. Also, from the quartet Storm Front, we were coached by Sid Libsack, Jim Clark, and Dave Ellis.

These guys have a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds. We are so appreciative of the time that they spent with us. We came away from La Crosse with some great tools to work on as we prepare for our first appearance on the district competition stage in October.

Well, that’s our official title, today anyway. We’re the 2006 Barbershop Harmony Society Land O’ Lakes District Packerland Division Novice Quartet Champions. Not bad. After 5½ years, we’ve finally entered the world of competion.

We competed today in the Packerland Division contest. We entered with basically four goals. We’re pretty pumped, because we succeeded in three of the four:

1. Win the division quartet championship. Well, this one was tough, and we didn’t make it; we took third place. But this was really the only goal we had that wasn’t completely in our own hands. We competed against other quartets like Choices, Perfect Timing, Hot Dog Pop and Two Small Frys, The Cheery-O’s and Bag of Tricks. Choices has been the champion for several years running now, and they earned the crown again today. Our hats off to them. It’s truly and honor to share the stage with a quartet like Choices; Joel, Colin, Smyte and Patrick are great guys and truly great musicians.

2. Win the novice quartet championship. We did this. But we were the only novice quartet competing, so it wasn’t too difficult. That said, it is still truly an honor and a thrill to hear our name called and to get up on stage to accept the award.

3. Score enough points to qualify to advance to the Land O’ Lakes District competition in Rochester, MN in October. All quartets who score at least 780 points advance. We scored 780. We just had to make it interesting. We’re very excited about this accomplishment and we look forward to our first trip to the district stage.

4. Have fun. This, we absolutely accomplished. We shared the stage with some great quartets. We had the opportunity to get some great feedback from three of the six judges after the contest. And the four of us enjoyed making great harmony together yet again.

So, overall, we’re a pretty happy quartet today. We’re enjoying the success and the fun we had. Monday night is our next rehearsal, and we’ll be back at work, preparing for upcoming gigs, and figuring out what we’ll sing on the district stage.

We had some fun at Marquette University tonight. We’ve actually made the drive down to Milwaukee a number of times to sing the national anthem for the Bucks, Brewers, Admirals and Marquette basketball. But this was the first time we sang for the Marquette women’s basketball game at the Al McGuire Center. The game was great, with Marquette beating Cincinnati 66-48.
Since we were right there on campus, Chris showed us around his old stomping grounds after the game. The coolest building we encountered was the Gesu Church. Unfortunately, it was locked; we had hoped that maybe we could go inside to ring a chord or two. But we settled for the steps out front. This church is a beautiful building that’s been around for 112 years!

Marquette is a 125-year-old school supported by the Jesuit order of Catholic priests. The Gesu Church was named in 1893 for the church in Rome where St. Ignatius (founder of the Jesuit order) is buried. All four of us were in awe of the steeples, the stone walls and the overall beauty of the building. Singing The Lord’s Prayer right there at this house of God was very moving. I hope we get back there sometime soon, at at time when we can see what it looks like inside.