While a traditional choir concert includes musical accompaniment for the singers, a cappella performers do not get that luxury since the sound is based on the group’s voices alone.
“If one person’s pitch is off, the whole thing can sound wrong. Because it’s a cappella, you can’t hide behind the music,” junior alto Kiera Pierre said.
While the idea of an a cappella group started two years ago, The B-Side, formed last year, taking voices from the audition-only Baldwinaires.
“It was the top eight voices from Baldwinaires” that first year, junior Josie Lang said.
Currently, The B-Side features 14 voices. Members of Baldwinaires audition to get in, and if they are selected, they are guaranteed a spot until they graduate.
“As students graduate, positions will open up and students will be able to audition to take over those spots,” music teacher Kris Tranter said.
Transitioning from choir music to a cappella presents challenges for everyone.
“This genre of music is new to me. I’m used to doing more classical choir music, and this is all contemporary pop music,” Tranter said.
The group goes further than just singing; they have incorporated a little dancing into their performance as well.
“There is even minor choreography that is run by one of the students, Jules Morton, who is helping put the visual part of it together,” Tranter said.
Each student acts as a leader, helping one another out as they try to hone their skills.
“It’s kind of a collaboration between me and the students, but it is very much student-run,”
Tranter said.
The event that the B-Side has been working toward is the second annual Pennsylvania Music Educators Music Association a cappella festival, which will be held on Saturday at Peters Township High School. The group will participate in various workshops and perform for music experts during the day, with the goal of getting to sing at a performance that night.
“Last year was the first PMEA a cappella festival,” Lang said. “We met with Deke Sharon, and he taught us how to make our singing a lot better in our group.”
Sharon arranged the music for the first two Pitch Perfect movies. He is also known as the “father of contemporary a cappella.”
“They’re going to have the chance to work with him again and tweak their singing so they can hopefully get to perform at the event that night,” Tranter said.
The B-Side has multiple songs that they learn and practice. But they have been perfecting a song that they have been working on for a year to hopefully perform at Saturday’s event.
“We are practicing ‘Mirrors’ right now by Justin Timberlake,” Lang said. “It’s the song that we sang last year for the spring concert, and we’re auditioning to perform it at the PMEA festival.”
It is a good song for the group to sing, Tranter said.
“The song is very catchy and fun, but it is definitely challenging,” Tranter said.
Last year at the festival, the Baldwin singers learned from Sharon how to dance with a microphone and how to enunciate correctly to make the song sound better. According to Lang, it was a great bonding experience for everyone in the group.
“It was just really fun last year to sing with Deke, so I’m excited for the festival this year,” Lang said.
