a cappella kid, through and through
Jun. 14th, 2024 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
isunshowerso, my dad was in a college a cappella group. this absolutely defined his college experience (other than, like, meeting my mom). some of the first music i remember listening to is the cds his group recorded in the 90s. fast forward a few years--i'm four or five, we've just moved, and we went to this local arts festival. the high school a cappella groups performed there. i was absolutely enraptured and forced my parents to buy me the cd the girls' group had recorded.
no, it was in fact NOT pitch perfect that ignited my childhood hunger for a cappella. it was watching the high school a cappella group perform. my parents, both singers, never once pressured me to sing, but after that i did it of my own volition. i tried out for every choir i could get my hands on (with varying levels of success... but i was persistent. those auditions i failed, i tried again, and usually was successful). i fucking loved pitch perfect, though. sixth grade me was a little obsessed with the cup song. i think i purchased it on itunes back before music streaming was ubiquitous.
it did in fact take me three tries to get into my high school a cappella group. once there, though, i arranged songs for the group. several of the girls i sang with (and our male counterparts) went on to sing a cappella with ICCA-level groups. i... went to a tiny liberal arts school with a few a cappella groups, but none on the level of pitch perfect. and again, it took me a few auditions to find the group i fit in with. i was very benji applebaum (the ben platt guy in pitch perfect) for a year there. but i loved my group, i arranged, i threw myself into leadership over covid, i got involved in acapolitics. and then i graduated and now i do barbershop, so some things never change. i'm an a cappella person and there is noooo changing that.
all this to say i read the nonfiction book that inspired the pitch perfect movie (also called pitch perfect) recently. uh, and it's really good? my dad's college group--and, in fact, two guys that were in the group at the same time he was, who sang on those cds--get namedropped in it. peter hollens, like from youtube, and his wife are in it. you can clearly tell where the movie producers got the idea for certain things. there's a girl who clearly inspired the anna kendrick character. deke sharon, who's the closest thing to a big name in college a cappella, inspired ben platt's character. look, my college a cappella group never toured or competed or recorded cds. but i loved my experience, if not my groupmates, to pieces. one of those girls i sang with is actually one of my best friends and i'm seeing her on sunday, so HER i love anyway. idk, the book, and more specifically the movie it inspired, changed the a cappella scene so much. it's been, what, 15 years since it was published? but it does make me remember all the passion.
nobody reads my blog but i AM going to be vain and link a video of my high school group doing one of my arrangements. i have a video from that same gig of me soloing, but the arrangement is what i'm prouder of tbh.
no, it was in fact NOT pitch perfect that ignited my childhood hunger for a cappella. it was watching the high school a cappella group perform. my parents, both singers, never once pressured me to sing, but after that i did it of my own volition. i tried out for every choir i could get my hands on (with varying levels of success... but i was persistent. those auditions i failed, i tried again, and usually was successful). i fucking loved pitch perfect, though. sixth grade me was a little obsessed with the cup song. i think i purchased it on itunes back before music streaming was ubiquitous.
it did in fact take me three tries to get into my high school a cappella group. once there, though, i arranged songs for the group. several of the girls i sang with (and our male counterparts) went on to sing a cappella with ICCA-level groups. i... went to a tiny liberal arts school with a few a cappella groups, but none on the level of pitch perfect. and again, it took me a few auditions to find the group i fit in with. i was very benji applebaum (the ben platt guy in pitch perfect) for a year there. but i loved my group, i arranged, i threw myself into leadership over covid, i got involved in acapolitics. and then i graduated and now i do barbershop, so some things never change. i'm an a cappella person and there is noooo changing that.
all this to say i read the nonfiction book that inspired the pitch perfect movie (also called pitch perfect) recently. uh, and it's really good? my dad's college group--and, in fact, two guys that were in the group at the same time he was, who sang on those cds--get namedropped in it. peter hollens, like from youtube, and his wife are in it. you can clearly tell where the movie producers got the idea for certain things. there's a girl who clearly inspired the anna kendrick character. deke sharon, who's the closest thing to a big name in college a cappella, inspired ben platt's character. look, my college a cappella group never toured or competed or recorded cds. but i loved my experience, if not my groupmates, to pieces. one of those girls i sang with is actually one of my best friends and i'm seeing her on sunday, so HER i love anyway. idk, the book, and more specifically the movie it inspired, changed the a cappella scene so much. it's been, what, 15 years since it was published? but it does make me remember all the passion.
nobody reads my blog but i AM going to be vain and link a video of my high school group doing one of my arrangements. i have a video from that same gig of me soloing, but the arrangement is what i'm prouder of tbh.
