At Jones College Prep, a cappella club is changing the tune: for the first year ever, it is becoming a co-ed group. 

But firstly: what is a cappella? 

“A cappella is basically singing without accompaniment. So, instead of singing along to a piano, there’s no background music,” said Henry Jones ‘23, one of the five student leaders this year.

The club is fully affiliated with Jones but is completely student led. The student leaders are in charge of the group, as well as singing along with the club members.

“Ms. Colby is sponsoring it. And the rehearsals take place at Jones, either during or after school, depending on the days,” said Jones. “We plan on performing at the concert or multiple concerts throughout the year.”

Previously at Jones, a cappella was split into two groups: one for higher voices (sopranos and altos), and one for lower voices (tenors and bases). 

“I was in tenor-bass a cappella since freshman year, but it got cut off and did not resume after the pandemic,” said Jones. “The treble tones, soprano-alto a cappella, did continue, though.” 

However, this year’s a cappella group has a major difference from previous years. 

“We thought this year we could get more people to apply by combining the groups. It actually worked – we do have more people auditioning,” said Mike Devlin ‘23, another one of the five leaders.

Usually, the leaders have trouble getting enough tenor-basses to apply. 

“I think that there is probably a lot of stigma around people who generally have lower voices about singing in a cappella groups, that it might not be manly or something like that,” said Nicole Leon ‘22, another one of the five leaders. 

There are pros to the previous system of smaller groups for each voice part.

“Our voices matched well, and the group was smaller and easier to work with,” said Leon.

However, this benefit was outweighed by the pros of having a co-ed group.

“There’s a lot of value within having all the parts at your disposal. It just gives you a wider range of choices in your music selection,” said Jones.

All five leaders are enthusiastic about this year of a cappella. 

“When everyone’s singing their part and it all comes together, that harmony is just really, really exciting to hear. It is honestly just great to be around people who are as passionate about singing and music as you are,” said Jones.