The second week of school, theater majors, recreational singers, and anyone, really, passionate about making mouth sounds and harmonizing without any music, all come together for a cappella auditions.
Northwestern has 12 a cappella groups, ranging from Freshman 15 (or F15), a green-bowling-shirt-themed group, to Brown Sugar, a South Asian interest group, to the Undertones, who are clad in blue and black and compete in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA).
I spoke to Allison Kuhn, a member of the Undertones, who explained how they judge their potential new members.
“Initially in the first audition, we take into consideration their musicality and how they perform the piece, and we also have a personality question…Then going into callbacks, obviously, we have to see how this person could fit into our group realistically,” said Kuhn.
The new members, or “babies” as they’re fondly called, have an initiation punctuated by personally decorated signs, lots of screaming, and a night of adventure and group bonding.
But for every person who joins a new a cappella family, someone else is inevitably left disappointed.
So, what does it actually take to get into an a cappella group? And what is the audition process like for interested students?
I decided to audition for some groups myself to give a first-hand account.
I had some criteria when deciding which groups. No special-interest groups; no groups that compete at the ICCAS; and no groups that had too many people I knew in them. This left me with Freshman 15, Sig O, which is women’s only, and Thunk, Northwestern’s oldest and most notorious a cappella group.
For each audition, I had to prepare a verse and chorus of a non-musical theater song to be sung without accompaniment. I chose “Oneida” by Tyler Childers.
I am not a singer. I did recreational theater throughout my youth, but my strong suit was always acting. I’m not completely tone deaf, but I knew that I wouldn’t measure up to the other auditionees. To give myself a better chance, I learned how to do some basic beatboxing because groups often need more vocal percussionists.
After each audition, I recorded a quick audio message detailing my thoughts. I did my F15 audition first. They made me fill out a short questionnaire about my vocal part and prior experience. There was also a question on the back asking me how I would save Justin Timberlake if he were kidnapped. I filled out the form and sang my song. They tested my range and tonal memory.
Some groups also have personality questions. F15’s required a bit of improv. They asked me what the letters “DBC” stood for. I said they stood for “dat big cock”.
My Sig O audition was similar. My song went slightly better, but my tonal memory test wasn’t great. They liked my answer to their personality question, though, when I said I’d describe myself as sourdough bread.
Thunk was my worst audition. Even though I was never going to join a cappella, I found myself incredibly nervous, as they are one of the most competitive groups to get into. The girl at the door talked to me as I filled out the questionnaire, but she forgot to introduce me when I walked into the room, so my audition began with awkward silence. The song and range check went fine, but I completely screwed up the tonal memory test.
“I literally didn’t even sing it. I sang the starting note and just forgot it all immediately. And I was so disappointed in myself because with the other ones, I had actually…I don’t know. I had actually done it to some extent, you know?”
They promptly told me the audition was over, but then I said that I could beatbox for them too. I freestyled a beat. They silently nodded, gave me a terse “thank you”, and that was the end. It was pretty terrifying.
“The lights were off. Everyone was wearing black. They were all staring at me, and I knew three of the people on the fucking board, which made me honestly kind of nervous, cause, like, I have to see these people around,” I said in my debrief.
I auditioned on a Sunday, and callbacks came out at noon on Wednesday. Northwestern A Cappella Community Alliance (NACCA) sent a list to everyone who auditioned, detailing the names of those who were called back to each group. It’s like a humiliation ritual: your success or failure emailed to all the other auditionees.
Of course, I did not get called back to Thunk. I thought I might have a chance with F15 because they seemed to like my improv, but sadly I didn’t get a callback from them either. Shockingly, Sig O gave me a callback for beatboxing and Alto 2.
For the callback, I had to learn harmonies for the songs “Honeymoon Avenue” and “Best Part”. I also had to find a new pop song to sing for them. The callback would be two hours long. I had three days to prepare.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the callback because I got sick and lost my voice. That put an end to my a cappella journey.
So, what do you have to do to be successful during a cappella auditions? It boils down to three things, their importance varying slightly from group to group.
First, genuine vocal talent and range; second, musicality; and third, personality. You can be an amazing singer, but if you don’t mesh well with the group, they won’t take you. Collegiate a cappella is built on a foundation of mutual understanding, togetherness, and friendship.
That being said, I genuinely had fun preparing for and doing the auditions. If you’re on the fence about a cappella, give it a shot! You may find your new on-campus family.
Worst comes to worst, you have a funny story to tell people at parties about the time you sang and badly beatboxed in front of a group of total strangers that you now have to walk by on campus every day.
