Title: Warm Ups
General Information about Item:
- Customary folklore: rituals, traditions
- Language: English
- Country where Item is from: USA
Informant Data:
- Trevor Davis is an ’18 that joined X.ado his freshman year and sang in his high school choir for three years. He is 21 years old. He was born in Wheaton, Illinois. He grew up and still lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is majoring in computer science, and minoring in math and anthropology.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context
All group members participate in the exercises. These warm-ups have been used for years, and the informant believes possibly since the founding of the group.
- Cultural Context
Acapella groups and other singers warm up before they have to sing with exercises for their throat, and just to practice and make sure they’re on pitch. The group warms up together as opposed to individually,reinforcing the group’s efforts to be inclusive and maintain strong relationships between members.
Item:
- X.ado’s group members have a warm up routine that they conduct before each show and rehearsal. These are typical things that you would expect from an acapella group, such as breathing exercises and sounds so they can warm up their voices and get ready for the show. X.ado completes these warm up exercises before every rehearsal and show to prepare themselves.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Transcript of Associated File:
“One thing is, being in an acapella group, we have a regular rehearsal schedule and we have a certain set of warmup, different breathing exercises, different sounds we need to get prepared. Being a Christian group, we do some different things before shows and rehearsals, so before each show, we’ll do a prayer circle about the show and about the people we’re singing to. So, one thing that makes X.ado unique to compared to other groups on campus is that we pray before all of our shows and rehearsals even in our performance group we’re going in with intention to each of those and that’s something we do on a regular basis”
Collector’s Comments:
- It is interesting that X.ado has the same exact warm up before every one of its rehearsals and performances. Many groups have slightly different warm ups every time and often, group members get warmed up on their own. The fact that X.ado members warm up together before every practice and performance reflects the inclusive and strong group culture X.ado has.
Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid
Compiled/Analyzed by: Afnan Enayet/Sruthi Pasupuleti
Tags/Keywords:
- Prayer
- Religion
- Christianity
- Warm up
- Acapella
- Singing