Practices for the Harrisonburg High School Men’s A Cappella group, affectionately nicknamed “Mancappella”, have begun. In preparation for this year’s Spring Arts Festival, the group sat down for the first time in a year to begin rehearsing their all vocal pop music medley. Arranged by senior Abe Nouri and junior Graham Rebhun, the Men’s A Cappella group’s song consists of features of OutKast’s “Hey Ya”, Pharrell’s “Happy”, and Bastille’s “Pompeii”.

From 9 to 10 p.m, around 20 students of various ages packed themselves into Nouri’s living room to learn the music.

The room was split into four sections; Bass, Baritone, Tenor 2 and Tenor 1, in ascending order of pitch range. Because of a paper shortage, each section, which had anywhere from four to seven people in it, crowded around a single copy of the sheet music. Nouri sat by the piano and played out each vocal part, while the corresponding vocal section mimicked his playing. Throughout the call and response session, groups were added together to create elaborate harmonies.

After several practices, the solo sections were split apart and left available for auditions. Solos are only a few lines long, but the large quantity of them allows for equal opportunity for those who wish to try out. Some vocalists sing, others rap and some perform a mix of both.

Sophomore Noah Heie and freshman Zach Benevento-Zahner are both members of the group.

“I do men’s a cappella because I enjoy a cappella. It’s a fun group because it’s not taken too seriously,” Heie said.

“Practices were pretty relaxed but we also get stuff done. Most of them were late at night and didn’t have a lot of stress […] It’s a different kind of music. All the melodies and beats are done with your voice and you need to get all the different parts like the bass line down precisely in order to make it sound good,” Benevento-Zahner said.

Spring Arts took place on Saturday, May 2.