Like most great adventures, our SoJam excursion began with a
car ride. There were four of us stuffed into Jade’s mildly tiny four-door –
Emily and Jade up front shouting about Jessie McCartney, and Sza and I in the
back making friendship bracelets. We sang loudly and often, and we may or may
not have made questionable merging choices. As I sat in the backseat,
surrounded on all sides by unquenchable enthusiasm and genuine excitement, I
could only think: I’m having the time of my life.
We arrived at SoJam and received our beautifitious name tags…
The workshops were amazing – more learning experiences than
lectures, and learn we did. The instructors were engaging, intelligent, and
super funny.
Neat things I learned…
- Vocal percussion! I had never perced before in my life, so basically everything the instructor talked about was new to me. Most VPs have one basic beat, but the best VPs can mix it up almost indefinitely. I definitely want to work on my percing skillz – maybe I’ll even be good at it, but only after tons of practice.
- How to use warm-ups effectively! It was interesting to see the different ways warm-ups can be used, especially since to me, warm-ups used to seem not that important. But now I know: they can be the most important part of rehearsal! It’ll be great to integrate this new-found knowledge into regular skirts rehearsal.
- Avi Kaplan has a beautiful voice. (Because we met him. [!!!])
All in all, it was an incredibly beneficial experience. I
think we learned a lot, both about being an a cappella group and about each
other as people. I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world, and I’m
incredibly thankful to our sponsors for this opportunity.
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