Impromptu Acapella

My favorite thing about Dartmouth is that the passion students naturally exude in their academics transfers directly into all parts of life here so you are never left bored. It's getting to be late in the term and under the weight of papers and pending exams, my friends and I decided to spice things up a bit and start our own acapella group. Dartmouth is full of talent and the a cappella scene here is pretty incredible. The groups are all student run and there's a good balance between all male, all female, and coed groups all of which have their own flavor and musical style.

My friends all happen to be of the more extroverted and enthusiastic variety. We all love to sing and dance, but none of us have any talent whatsoever. However, we've decided the best thing to do is to start own our a cappella group. We've named ourselves The Bad News Baritones and last night was our first rehearsal. Naturally, since we think we're worth it, instead of just meeting together in my off-campus house (I live off-campus in a house with 7 other seniors. Living off-campus is something about 10% of upperclass students choose to do), we reserved a rehearsal room for our debut rendez-vous in The Hopkins Center for the Arts. The Hop (its nickname) is an incredible resource. Studio Art students take all their classes there, the jewelry and woodworking shops are open to all students with no experience necessary, and anyone is welcome to reserve space in the top-of-the-line rehearsal rooms. My friend and I reserved ourselves Upper Buck, the #1 Rehearsal Room that comes with a full sound system and piano and we spent an hour with our musically disinclined friends attempting to "arrange" a post-modern version of Murder On The Dance Floor, a particularly brilliant masterpiece by everyone's favorite singer/songwriter, Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

Our rehearsal was amazing - we sounded terrible, spent most of the time trying to figure our choreography, and as actual musicians walked by our rehearsal space, the so-called "sound proof room" seemed to have failed us given their expressions of horror and confusion. It was perfect. We plan to have our first show next term at India Queen, a local restaurant where many Dartmouth students work, and are hoping to have a full impromptu musical prepared by final exams this spring so we can perform in the library and give students a study break.