Touring in DC and Baltimore

Many of the a cappella groups at Dartmouth do some sort of touring during winter break. This year, the Dartmouth Dodecaphonics went to Washington DC and Baltimore for a week. Other groups traveled around the east coast, with one even going to London! Every year groups change the locations of their tours, so hopefully I'll soon be able to travel even further across the country or (keeping my fingers crossed) internationally! Dodec tours in the past couple of years have been to New York City, Austin, Chicago, Florida, and other areas of the country.

So after trudging through finals and finally finishing up all my work, I was able to relax (somewhat) as I prepared for tour! Of course, we had rehearsal every day before (and during) tour. We left a day after the actual term had ended (so nobody was around- it was so strange being at a deserted school) and took the Dartmouth Coach to Logan Airport in Boston. From there we flew down to Baltimore (though we started in DC) and eventually transferred back to Baltimore. Thanks to the generosity of two of our members in those areas we were housed by them the entire trip, allowing us the comforts of a real home instead of hotel rooms or a rented place.

Many of our shows took place at elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as local alumni clubs. Performing for younger kids was a blast, as they never really get to experience a cappella, at least at the collegiate level. Every show the kids were really excited about us coming, and responded enthusiastically to our shows!

Additionally, meeting alumni at the Dartmouth Clubs of DC and Baltimore was also a very cool experience. With alums from '50 to '09, it was interesting to speak with them about their experiences about Dartmouth and how the school has evolved over the years since they graduated (especially for those who graduated before the school turned co-ed in 1972). Meeting a Dodec '84 was awesome, as she was one of the founding members of the Dodecaphonics! One of the funnier moments of the evening was when she remarked "Oh, you guys are cool now?" Yes, alumn, yes we are.

(Self call.)

A Cappella is A CaAwesome

Yes, that's the title of this post.

Anyway: Here at Dartmouth I am a member of the Dartmouth Dodecaphonics, Dartmouth's oldest co-ed a cappella group. Founded in 1984, this group of 12 (dodeca-) people has grown into a group of 20 that still love to make sounds/music (-phonics). Every term we have many performances ranging from shows at greek houses (fraternities and sororities) to shows on Spaulding (a big auditorium in the Hopkins Art Center - the hop- that you will know well by the end of orientation) and even shows for our president, Jim Kim. We sing a variety of music mostly in the pop/rock/r&b spectrum and perform a bunch of different songs every show.

As a co-ed group the Dodecs (commonly used nickname) has a wider range of song choices than our single-sex counterparts (all-male or all-female groups on campus). It's really cool to be able to have both guys and girls singing solos and their own background parts, and the result are songs with many different layers and sounds.

Being in an a cappella group at Dartmouth is a pretty big commitment, with rehearsals usually 3 times a week for about 2 hours each, not including extra rehearsals for shows and the shows themselves. It's a lot of hard work and requires a lot of concentration (something we sometimes struggle to achieve) in order to make sure our parts blend, we're all together, dynamics are present, etc. But the experience is well worth the work. For me, the Dodecs is like a family away from home providing support and help in any way that I, or another member, needs it. My a cappella group is very tight-knit, and I'm thankful that I've been able to take part in such an amazing group with such talented people!

If you're interested in auditioning for one of the nine a cappella groups on campus (3 all-male, 3 all-female, 3 co-ed) auditions take place at the end of orientation, right before classes start. So you have a while. But feel free to look around the website I posted at the top of this blog (see the hyperlink), listen to some of our work, and get excited about this, among many other, musical opportunities at Dartmouth!