Pitch Slapped 1.1

Pitch Slapped

Episode 1.1

Aca-Gods

Contemporary A Cappella producer/arranger/aca-everything Deke Sharon has a new show, y'all!  He has a LOT to do with the a cappella shows you've seen so far, whether it be as a consultant, producer, or arranger.  This series is about a cappella groups being professionally coached for competition, and of course, the PellaPusher needs to write about it!  I'm a little bit behind, though, so I'm playing catch up.

Deke visits Stay Tuned.  He wants to split the group in half.  Uh oh.

Performance coach Diana Priesler visits Highlands Voices.  Their next competition is in 4 days, against rivals Stay Tuned.  Diana wants them to win the summer invitational.   

Deke tells Stay Tuned that Highlands Voices is better than them in every way.  Harsh.  He wants them to sing from the heart for the first rehearsal.  

Diana wants Vanessa to feel emotion.  She's ready to take her off of the solo if she can't do better than Maddie.  Vanessa's performance is more subdued, which I like, though Maddie is strong.  Vanessa gets to keep her solo...but she needs to leave early for another rehearsal.  Diana goes ballistic because she refuses to lose to Deke.  Wait.  They're high school groups?  I guess I missed that earlier.

Deke wants Stay Tuned to be dressed in all black, with no choreography.  They worry.

Diana wants HV to do some exercising to condition themselves to dance while singing.  Good idea.  

Deke is unhappy that Stay Tuned has lost the emotion, and their competition is the next day.  Will they be lucky and have the "bad dress rehearsal = great performance" phenomenon?  Then they rehearse without him because they want to get it right. 

Highlands Voices:  "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit

Vanessa sounds good!  The whole ensemble sounds good, actually.  Their blend is nice.  Deke doesn't hear joy in their voices.

Stay Tuned: "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap

Chords sound good.  There sure are a lot of them.  No wonder Deke wanted to cut them in half.  No choreography at all, though.  Hmmm.  I guess their "visual" score will be based on the fact that they all wore black?

Stay Tuned wins Difficulty of Vocal Arrangement and Vocal Performance.

Highlands Voices creams them, though in Visual Performance.  Duh.

Let's see what happens in the next 7 episodes!  Stay Tuned can only go up in score with Visual, so this will be interesting.

Next Up:  War.  Diana goes nuts again. People are crying.  Why is Deke on a hospital bed?!