Among the many activities on campus that I am a part of, the one I am most proud of being in is my a cappella group, the Class Notes. We're a comprised of 6 men and 6 women so that already makes the social dynamics of the group quite interesting.
The inputs that make up this group are more varied than one might initially think. Given the main reason for this group, the main inputs are the people and their respective voices. Add in a pitch pipe and some arrangements and we have all we need to sing. Our task is always to rehearse, entertain, or amuse. On top of the music though, everyone also brings their own set of skills like web page experience, musical ability, organization, etc. These skills are also important in their own right for this group.
The processing only essentially happens while rehearsing, performing, and singing together. We all gather together for 3 rehearsals a week, two hours at a time. If we ever need to change places or times, it’s usually decided ahead of time, and e-mailed out as a reminder. The group is like a very close family. Everyone is good friends and this makes it easy for all of us to work together and cohesively achieve a great sounding performance. We do still have clearly defined roles though in terms of having our respective voice part to sing, as well as a single member being the musical director.
In terms of proximity, this attribute is more important to our group than most. Missing even one member of our group at a rehearsal or performance makes it difficult to sound our best because we’ll be missing a very important voice. On top of this, where we stand in relation to each other will also change how we sound. Even if we all stand about 2 feet apart from each other, this will make the sound much less directed and clean.
The outputs are what keep me in the Class Notes. We make amazing music that entertains a lot of people around campus, we perform it while priding ourselves on musicality, and some of the best friends I have at Cornell are in the Class Notes. Needless to say, there are times where putting in so much effort can be trying, but we all always come back to sing more!
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I'm guessing that rehearsal times/places are set early on in the semester and stay the same throughout. Do communication problems arise when people don't get the email reminders about meeting time/place changes or they forget? How do you deal with that?
ReplyDeleteWith 6 male members and 6 female members, I'm curious if factions tend to form along gender lines. This seems like a natural line for the group to split down, and I wonder if it ever causes problems. I know from personal experiences that in larger groups, it isn't all that uncommon for factions to from this way. It seems that often times (almost) all the females will want one thing, while (almost) all the males want something else.
ReplyDeleteI think it's important to foresee that as a possible issue whenever making decisions for a group. If an executive board is full of male members, they may not take the females' desires into account when making a tough decision.