Acapella...Sing! Sing a song! Sing it loud! Sing it strong!!

As I watch the television finale of the 'The Sing Off', I am very impressed with the diversity of groups singing beautiful harmony unaccompanied by any musical instruments. And it brings back a college memory which was quite a unique experience. There was a yearly competition among all of the sororities and fraternities called 'Greek Sing'. Given a certain amount of time which I think was 10 minutes, every group created their best masterpiece which was scored by a point system for music, choreography, costumes, spirit, etc. You were granted more points when the presentation was sung unaccompanied by musical instruments..
So, we arranged a glorious patriotic medley of all of the Armed Forces' songs in three part harmony. We made our own red, white, and blue outfits, and practiced many, many hours on weekends in preparation for the big event. Led by our president Phyllis facing us, we were allowed three notes from a piano for the different groups 'to get their particular pitch'. As we faced the packed audience of fellow contestants, we were confident and smiling...ready to impress everyone. We had it solid! The hours of work put into this endeavor were about to take the winning trophy. Phyllis gave the nod to Angie who had taken piano lessons for years, who then walked to the piano and played three notes. plink, plink, plunk. And immediately, we who were facing the audience kept on smiling at Phyllis's frozen's face...of shock looking back at us. We all knew that they were NOT the correct notes. Oh my God!! It was unbelievable! Altos, sopranos,...everyone tried to summon their own note from memory. Phyllis's arms were raised, she gave us the 1-2-3-4...And we began.

"Off we go into the wild blue yonder...flying high ...

Well, it was a wild sound surely to secure last place for us. And then after about 20 seconds [of ' would the floor please just open up and swallow us up]...Phyllis gave us a signal to stop because she had made the executive decision to 'start over'. We would take penalty points for a 'false start', but...holy mackerel....it was the only way to proceed.

For the second time, the nod was given to Angie to go play the three notes designed to put everyone in tune. 'Come on Angie...you have the power...We know you can do it.

plink, plink, plink.

Our fearless leader's arms went up a second time, a great big smile lit up her face, and...1-2-3-4-

"Off we go into the wild blue yonder...It was as it should be... blended perfection! Wahoo!!!

Our second medley was a satire about college life where we changed the lyrics of pop songs to make jokes and highlight the fun and foibles of college life. The hundreds of the Greek organizations' members were now looking, listening, and howling at our creative spoof. We received a standing ovation- what an amazing sight and sound....certainly a much better feeling than the adrenalin rush of everyone singing in God knows what key...scale...whatever!!

We did not win the first place honor in the competition, but.....

We did win "The Spirit Trophy!!!"

And that was the 'pi-ece de resistance'.

I think that after a couple of days, we were mostly remembered for our dazzling performance, and our 'spirit'. As for the group of scared stiff performers about to break out a new sound never heard before....well,

We will recall the low point[of embarrassment] followed by the the high point[of the standing ovation from our competing peers'].

We will never forget it!!!

There's a lot to be said for 'spirit'!