A couple of weeks before school started, I got an email inviting my students in choir to come join the South Texas A cappella camp and talent over load (STACCATO). Knowing that most of my students have seen Pitch Perfect, I had a feeling that this might be the answer to jump starting these groups.
When I finally met the students in high school choir on the first day of school, their first question was, "Can we sing like they do on Pitch Perfect?" I smiled and said absolutely! (since my first music love is a cappella) and began to tell them about the camp. They all got excited and I got the info to them and we started preparing for STACCATO.
Yesterday was the day! We showed up at MacArthur High School in San Antonio around 8:30 and were warmly welcomed. There were 200 students from 20 schools. Students sang two a cappella arrangements, Run to You and Brave. Three professional a cappella groups worked with our students through sectionals and master classes on how to improvise, use stage presence and make percussion sounds. One of the groups, Cluster, is from Italy and it is very rare to get to see them in concert in the United States. The concert with students performing first and the other three groups performing the remainder of the concert was truly a treat for not only me but all of the students. All three groups combined represented genres from barbershop, jazz, blue grass, contemporary and even some rock. Each group was very entertaining.
My students not only learned a lot, but they became more motivated, pumped and ready to incorporate what they learned in the camp. One of my guys started doing some percussion outside the school and within seconds we had a group of guys around us adding more percussion sounds. He was shocked at what happened. I told him that he better be careful when he does that especially in an environment like we were in yesterday because everyone wants to join in to make incredible music.
I had fun as well, and even learned or had some new ideas. I grew up on a cappella music and still love it to this day. The group Clearly vocal, I discovered, is from the Church of Christ. The way I discovered this was, one of the songs they sang last night was a song I knew from the Zoe Group. This is a group that records and arranges contemporary Christian songs for church of Christ denominations who want updated a cappella music. One of the members is the worship leader for Glenwood Church of Christ in Tyler TX where all five members of the group attend church.
One of my student's dad is a member of the school board and he came to the concert. He was really supportive of this event and supportive of the new choir program. I am really excited for the future of our vocal program. My son is even in the middle school choir. The other day I was teaching the boys the harmony part to the song "Roar" and Andrew and another boy were right on the notes and leading the rest of the guys. You know that is a proud Mom moment. :-)
One of the guys from Clearly Vocal announced last night that there is another a cappella camp on October 25 in Austin. My students are already wanting to attend this one as well. Here is to new memories and creating our own Pitch Perfect.
SLAG (Super Large a Cappella Group)
Clearly Vocal from Tyler Texas
Cluster from Genoa Italy
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