I’ve relocated to Simmons College and am working with the Simmons Sirens, the ONLY group here at Simmons (and yes, an all-women’s college means all-female a cappella group).  I was surprised when I hit the campus to find only one group at a college- I’m used to double digits and special niche groups. There were a lot of culture changes for me, going from a 12-group school to a 1-group school, but I thought I’d open the boards and hear what the world has to say:

Do you have a lot of groups in your area (institution or city, depending where you are)? What kinds of challenges do you face by having a big/small community of aca-groups? What’s so awesome about having so many/few?

Click this post’s heading to comment.

Then again, our school systems are failing so hard that high school graduates are effectively ninth graders from 10 years ago, so I guess this dream can wait so Madison can learn how to read.

(But when will she learn how to feel ?)

Anywho, these guys are more than satirists, but pretty savvy musicians. It takes a creative mind to come up with compositions, then they splice-slice-dice live non-musical footage into the compositions. The rhythms need to be kept to some extent so the speech can still be understood, but there are snips and repetitions so it slides right into the musical groove. It also allows satiric emphasis- you hear what the creators want you to hear again and again. The visual element gets spiced up by having the creators green-screen themselves to provide musical/satiric foils to the actual news bits. The music makes it memorable and catchy, but the real point is the political satire.

While a lot of the messages are liberal in nature, the musical style is pretty standard pop music. The heavy electronics, the ubiquitous auto-tune, and the ostinato and repetitions are very “pop”. I think the music genre lends a topical aura to the source material: that which is literally topical. While it definitely makes a splash today, the musical workmanship in the future will probably only be admired for its innovation, rather than as a work of art. You don’t go listen to old episodes of Auto Tune the News because the news is out of date, therefore the video is out of date. Topical becomes stale, stale becomes history, history becomes retro, and retro churns out hipsters and thrift stores, and who really likes thrift stores? Really? You just want to admire old things for being old. “These dresses are so silly! Let’s go get a bubble tea.”

Out of date isn’t necessarily bad. Some choice phrases (“Very thin ice,” “Hide yo kids, hide yo wife”) make the music a little catchy, but you sing that on the streets and people will give you the crazy eye. [aside: I may have turned the auto-tune remix of the double rainbow clip above into my ringtone. Listen to the end, and you'll see the whole troupe doing a live version. ] But still, there used to be lots of classical compositions that “quoted” other popular composers in their works…and nobody knows who those quoting composers are. They were topical. Now they’re forgotten (mostly).

Old clips of the Daily Show? Entertaining only because of the gags, not the news. There’s a huge difference between John Stewart making an impeachment joke about Clinton when Clinton is in office versus out of office for 8 years. It’s old. Yeah. Get with the times.

The music in it, while not particularly epic or amazing, was perfect for the show and I wouldn’t have asked for anything else. Synth sounds, traditional Asian instruments, and artfully stylized character motifs all arise naturally, without being too stilted. Huge ups for a great TV show!

~Ostinatos, or repeated bits of music, make teaching and retaining a lot easier…so you should do it! Do a single measure motif, then repeat it for a section. Every part can have a different ostinato (which makes it sound flashy), but it drastically cuts down on the amount of material you need to devise.

~What may seem less important than notes- the dynamics, shaping, and syllables- are just as important as the notes. Don’t forget them.

~Be enthusiastic about yoru arrangement, even if it’s your first. Attitude changes a lot, even if it’s a crummy arrangement. If you come in tentative, your singers will be tentative, and your performance will be tentative. Tentative performances suck.

~Try to avoid putting the highest notes of the arrangement near the beginning or middle. Let them be a literal high-point near the end of the arrangement.

~Arrangements take time. It’s ok if you’re spending hours and hours on it. That’s normal! Just keep working until you believe that it is ready- don’t try to finish it in an hour.

*Private schools
*Student activities jobs in colleges, YMCAs, or community centers
*Service organizations like MATCH Corps,Citizen Schools, City Year, or other education/service gigs
*Administrative assistants to music ensembles (librarian, personnel management, office assistant)
*Grants or short-term programs, like Fusion Arts Exchange
*Activist with arts lobbying groups, like Americans for the Arts

A lot of these opportunities can be a leg up to something else, or a creative way of utilizing music skills. If you sit down and chart out what you like, what you’re good at, and what sounds crazy, I bet you’ll find something that you didn’t think of before but feel wild enough to give it a shot.

And if you’re wondering what’s up with Jorb?

For real, I made a boat mixlist made up of only that track. Andy Samburg, you tickle me.

~How would you write out parts for someone who doesn’t read music?

~How do you teach an Alto2 if they don’t understand how quarter notes work?

~How do you put together an a cappella arrangement without writing down any notes?

Ponder that while I’m on a boat.

Here’s the original rant, which was followed by a techno remix, R&B/Club remix, and my personal favorite, a Newsies trailer re-release.

Oh, how technology and cheap beat machines have revolutionized the political cartoon.