Last semester, in the early stages of my Choir Presidency I had an idea. This semester I have brought that idea to fruition. I wanted to start a Barbershop quartet. A quartet called " The Ragtime Cougars."

I was really worried about finding good musicians, or enough with an interest in singing barbershop harmony. Much to my surprise, I had a huge turnout on the first night, and am looking forward to even more at the call-out/audition I am currently headed to.

As it stands, I have enough for a performance quartet, and an amateur quintet that will learn with us and be alternates. I will have both groups doing various performances including: nursing homes, street corners, art shows and other community types of events. But first I have to teach the rules and ways of singing barbershop.

Singing barbershop is harder than most A capella singing because the notes are so much closer together in the chord. Even further yet, the technique for singing is intentionally more nasal and brighter. This creates better overtones. An overtone happens when a chord is perfect and the vibrations create an extra note that no body is singing. The additional challenge comes for us that I will have to rewrite the music because we have both men and women in the same quartet.

I can't explain why there was such a good turnout, but I am absolutely ecstatic. If you are a student at Indiana University Kokomo get a hold of me and have a private audition. I would love to have even more people involved in my little group. Email me at kopkacody@gmail.com.