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United States219 Posts
I don't know how many of you are familiar with a cappella music. For those that aren't, it's when singers sing in a group without any kind of instrumental accompaniment(as in, the singers form the harmonies themselves completely)
I'm a high school senior right now. I'm an avid choir student, and I'm going to be studying music education at the University of Houston next year. I've always loved singing a cappella music in the past and so, for our school's end of the year pop show, I decided it would be a good idea for me to get a group of men together and sing Hallelujah(by Leonard Cohen) for our school's pop show. Of course, you have to go through auditions first. So in the month before auditions, we rehearsed and despite a shaky start, we were able to get the song in pretty good shape-I was pleased with it, and compared to most high school choir members, I have very high standards for what's good singing and what isn't.
So today was the audition. We had done a quick run through of the song like 20-30 minutes beforehand, and it went fine. And then it was time for the audition, and we walked into the room, and I played the pitch on the pitch pipe(singers generally need one of the first pitches played on either a pitch pipe or a piano when singing a cappella, unless they are one of those pitch perfect people) and we started singing.
And when we did, the group was singing in 3 different keys.
I didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure if I could stop it and start over, so I just let it run, hoping the group would listen to each other and begin to tune. But they never did. If and of you have sung a cappella music before, than you would know that there is almost nothing worse that can happen than when all the members are not in the same key. I was completely mortified. I didn't know what to do. The song just kept going, and we never got back together in one key.
I guess this might sound silly to a lot of you-I mean, it's just a high school pop show. But it was one of the most embarrassing experiences I have ever had, knowing that I was the one in charge of that group, and that the one time where it counted, we totally trainwrecked. And the worst thing about it was that I KNEW that it had been really good less than an hour ago, and then the one time we had to show it off, we just totally failed. There's no way in hell we're getting it, since there were a lot of soloists that sang it and did a really good job, but the sheer humiliation from that disaster of an audition sucks ass.
Meh. I just can't wait for college-UH has some awesome a cappella groups that I'm gonna audition for in the fall. Just felt like sharing this story with you guys.
 
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maybe they were all on key and you were off o:
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Hey after the performance you should've said that it was a nu-avante-garde-jazz interpretation and used complicated multi-key harmonies.
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United States219 Posts
@rinny
-haha, not quite. Me and the guy next to me were in one key, the 2 guys in the middle were in another, and the 2 guys at the end were in another. It wasn't any one person
@Cycle
-lolz, I doubt that would've convinced them 
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Maybe not convinced them but at least shown how awesome of a person you are lolololol.
btw you could have asked your group to stop and restart, although it's semi-amatuer to do so. But it would've been EVEN MORE embarassing had you done that, hit the pitch pipe again, and had the group all off-key once more. In all honesty the best possible decision would've been to get more talented singers in your group or practice more.
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United States4053 Posts
I thought vocal groups use a harmonica to synchronize the key at the start?
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United States219 Posts
Yeah, I wish I had restarted it, but I wasn't sure if I could. I'm pretty sure with a second try, we would've gotten it. It was just incredibly frustrating because literally 20 minutes before the audition we were singing in tune with each other, and then we went in there and craaaashed
@infinitestory
Generally, they use a pitch pipe which plays the tonic note. It varies, though.
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Having done a bit of live performance singing with others before, I know the feeling. Nothing sounds worse than being out of key. My sympathies to you.
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As much as i don't understand all of vocals, that does sound quite awry. Sorry dude  hope you learn from the experience.
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Must have been agonizing singing the whole song out of key... one of the most important qualities of a musician is the ability to listen to others. If I were to criticize your leadership of the group from the limited information in this blog, I'd say you should have focused on forming teamwork in the small group. You don't need to have perfect pitch to hear that "something is wrong" with the music (three different keys simultaneously? come on). Once people learn to listen to each other, they can adjust (via trial and error, if it comes down to that).
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In the case of starting it wrong, I would say it depends on the size of the event or the performance. Since it was an audition in school, it would have been fine! You are performing to bring joy to the ears, and it is ALRIGHT to make mistakes. And if you can prevent an error filled performance by restarting in the first 10 seconds, I see no problem!
I am sure you guys practiced a lot over and over. It must be that the nerves got to them. As you guys experience more stage performances, you guys will do better.
I think for my highschool senior year, I did some a capella singing 'Under the Boardwalk' by The Drifters, couple solo parts for our main choir performance, and etc. Brings back good memories... Did you guys pass the audition by any chance?
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EPT
