As part of the ongoing outreach effort, we've been encouraging high school groups to take a shot at some barbershop in the form of an easy-entry youTube video contest. (See the performances at bit.ly/youSING2015.)

Prizes totaling $1750 were awarded to school music program for performances in three categories:

• Quartet - Canyon High School, Anaheim, California
• Men's Ensemble - Price Panthers Men's Ensemble, Ida Price School, San Jose, California
• Mixed Ensemble - Provo High School, Provo, Utah

A total of 42 high school music educators requested the youSing packet of music and learning media through the website, and 100 more packets were distributed to high school music teachers during the February ACDA 2015 National Conference in Salt Lake City.

We're making a difference, too. Says one teacher, "Singing for this contest has ignited such a passion in my students. It is a joy to see them get excited about singing! Thank you so much!"

#win.

100 classes! 100!

You said, "Give us something more than just watching shows!" You said, "We want our heroes to share what they know." You said, "What really happens when champ quartets go out on the road?"

We've got answers for (almost) all of that. This summer, Harmony U at the International Convention in Pittsburgh will offer ONE HUNDRED class sessions. We cover the entire landscape of barbershopping -- to just scratch the surface, consider this range of choices:

• Goodbye Stage Fright! with Paul Ellinger

• Woodshedding 101 with Tom Gentry

• Likes, Tweets, and Home Pages with Steve Skolnick

• Eliminate Vocal Challenges with Ease! with Debra Lynn

• Chorus Directing is Problem Solving with Jeff Taylor

• Gold Medal Hour: with The Vocal Majority

• How To Share Barbershop With Music Teachers with Sherry Lewis

• Diagnosis: Vocal Tension with Steve Scott

• New Music Reading Session with Adam Scott

• Overnight Success: Dealer's Choice with Gary Parker

• Comedy Hour with Shane Scott

• AIC War Stories with Fred Farrell

• Barbershop roots with David Wright

• Gold Medal Hour: Musical Island Boys

Why a hundred classes instead of a dozen or so? Flexibility: Our students can choose from a variety of days and times to attend. Arriving early? Great - classes start on Tuesday! Can't handle 15 hours of quarter-finals? No problem: duck out for a few classes. Want to do, not watch? This is all about participation: Move, sing, and actively participate.

See the full list of courses and times at barbershopconvention.com/harmony-university

And hard-core POLECAT FANS. As we reported last year, the Westminster bunch is committed to singing the old songs. As Shawn York observed,

If we are going to target young people, and be viewed as "exclusionary", we better be extra diligent about counterbalancing that by reaching out to older generations and learning the old songs. We want the legacy chapters to view us as part of the solution of a widening generation gap, not part of the problem. This isn't just a "polecat" thing; it's an ideal and a culture, based on reaching out and pulling people together.

Hence the Polecat Challenge issued this week on Facebook -- with accompanying video, natch. 

This is big, peeps. Really big. Dozens of our top-selling titles now offer learning tracks as digital purchases using Amazon and iTunes, two of the largest distribution channels in the world. 

Use your existing accounts to get the materials you need instantly, anywhere. We currently offer the most recent dozen or so releases, and many, many more are in the pipeline for this year.

Browse the selection now on Amazon or the iTunes store.

They tuned them, locked them, rang the living G out of them... and Realtime left a lasting impact. We're pretty stoked to see them on the AIC Show at the convention in Pittsburgh this summer. You should hear our 2005 champs as they won it.