This is the 4th in the week-long series to get everyone ready for the new school year. The A Cappella Group is about to enter it's fourth year of existence. For those of you who haven't seen or heard our a cappella group - go here http://cdbaby.com/cd/acappellagroup and listen to some samples. Contempory A Cappella is a phenomenon that has taken the college world by storm over the past two decades and is just now, over the last two or three years, spread like wildfire to high schools throughout the country. It is an evolution of doo-wop and barbershop that mirrors the music of today. Using only voices, contemporary a cappella groups recreate today’s pop hits, yesterday’s classics and everything in between. Our group has been doing it very well over the past three years and we need a few good members in order to keep it going strong. The auditions for The A Cappella Group will take place on Monday, August 14 and Tuesday, August 15 in the choir room. You only need to attend one of the days. There will be two parts to the audition – solo singing and group singing. For the solo singing portion, you need to prepare a solo from a pop, rock, alternative style song that will show off your ability to sing lead. Please stay away from classical, musical theatre, folk songs, etc. Your solo should be no longer than 1 minute long and needs to be a cappella. For the group singing portion, you will perform an excerpt of a four part piece in groups of four with one person on a part. You can pick up the music for the group piece on the first day of school from Mr. Stroh. In order to have a successful audition, you need to do the following in your audition. 1. Sing in tune!! This is the most important element. Your solo needs to start in one key and end in the same key without any transpositions taking place in the middle. 2. Be able to be secure on your part during the group singing. The majority of singing that you will do if you are in the group is part singing so you must be able to do it well and be independent while doing it. 3. Be expressive while singing. In order to perform this music successfully, you can’t stand like a robot and just sing. You need to use your face and entire body to be expressive and convey the meaning of the song. I hope that you will consider being a part of The A Cappella Group and try-out during one of these two days. Pick a song that you sound great on and really make it your own. Make sure that you pick-up the music for the group singing portion on the first day of school, so you will have plenty of time to prepare. There were some great solo auditions last year, that did not sing well during the group portion. Take both parts of the audition seriously. I am just curious to see how many people are actually reading these articles, so we are going to try something. If you come to the open house tomorrow and stop by the choir room, you need to say the codeword “tippy toe” and you will get a tasty reward. All you have to do is say “tippy toe” so stop by the choir room and claim your reward.