Lucky Penny

I am in a womens barbershop quartet called Lucky Penny. I sing the baritone part (commonly called bari). We are brand spankin' new (started our group in November) and we are gearing up to compete at a regional competition in Colorado this April/May. If we place in the top 2 we get to go on to International. That will probably not happen this year as the quartet groups who compete are AMAZING and have been around for years working & perfecting their sound. There is, however, an award that I know we can win called "The Novice Award". This award is given to a quartet that has at least 2 of the 4 who have never competed before and who did an amazing job with a newer group. Since our entire group is novice (none of us have competed in a quartet) we are aiming to take that award. How? LOTS OF HARD WORK!

The other 3 members of our group are from left to right:
Brooke (tenor), Kate (bass), Penny (lead), and me (baritone)

We learned 3 Christmas songs and went caroling around our neighborhoods. We also sang for Kate's elementary school at their Christmas program that they do every December. The kids LOVED us! :)

I just listened to the winners of 2009's international quartet competition and I am melting just listening to them! It's that tingly feeling I get in my gut, my heart, and the back of my neck when I hear music with amazing harmonies so absolutely beautiful that it makes me want to cry. I know this sounds really bizarre but when music is that beautiful my chest almost hurts and the music just fills my heart. I could sit for hours listening to it. It's the kind of music that I know must have been inspired because it sounds so pure. I don't know how else to explain that feeling I get. Crazy and weird I know. :)

I want to be able to sing like that. Sing in a group like that. The coolest part...I know my quartet, Lucky Penny, can do that with some hard work. I am SO EXCITED! (Have I mentioned how much I love to sing?) Right now we practice 2 times a week (Tuesdays and Saturdays) and we will be doing coaching sessions at least once a month from now until competition. It is a lot of hard work but I feel that it is well worth the effort.

Last Saturday I took Jess with me to practice and she was SO good for us! She sat and played with her toys for about half of the time. The other half of the time she wanted one of us to hold her and she just listened and watched completely fascinated by it all. Several times I almost stopped singing because I wanted to laugh: she was trying to sing with us! It was so adorable! I am hoping that she loves to sing as much as I do when she gets older. It would be awesome to sing duets with my daughter! (only she has to be a soprano because I am most definitely an alto!)