Meet the Melodic Minors, FHS’s very own boys a cappella group!

The group was started this year by senior Nate Wild and sophomore Gabe DeBenedict because they wanted to do a cappella for their outside-of-school chorus honors requirement.

Alongside Gabe and Nate are members Zach Tassinari (senior), Andrew Rizoli (junior), Kevin Buckley, Ben Cohn, and Dan Schratz (freshman).

The leader, Nate, explained how having members in all four grades was his favorite aspect of the group because the Melodic Minors could continue being passed on from “generation to generation”. He hopes that the Melodic Minors will be singing at FHS for decades to come.

In case you missed the 2014 FHS winter music concert, the Melodic Minors wowed the crowd with their performance of “Sha Boom”, which since then has been performed at other school events and at outside performances around town.

The group meets Tuesdays and Fridays to rehearse and learn new songs. Right now they are working on learning the National Anthem, and in the future want to learn other songs, including “On Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons.

The boys confessed to never warming up at rehearsals but say that they probably should. They just like to jump in to what they are learning. When learning songs, Nate plays some parts on the piano, and they learn sections at a time. Then they piece them together once they know them well enough.

Their influence is the Wise Fools, a former FHS a cappella group.

During the naming process, the boys were throwing around other suggestions, like The Runaway Boys, and some that ended up being the name of a Weird Al album so they couldn’t use them. While they were discussing what to do, Zach was writing “The Melodic Minors” on the whiteboard in the practice room, and they just knew that was the name for them.

The group works hard at what they do, but still maintain a fun dynamic. There is no tension between any of the members; any outsider could see that they are like brothers. Some joke that they feel the group has taken ten years off of their life.

During the interview, the guys wished to say something about each member of the group.

Ben is awesome.

Nate is the Justin Timberlake of the group.

Zach is the most philosophical, and he came up with the glorious name.

Kevin has the most energy.

Andrew is best at hitting the high notes.

Gabe bursts into song the most.

Dan is swag.

If being part of this group in the future interests you, there will be auditions next year. They sing tenor tenor base base and are going to be doing lots of classic songs, like, “For the Longest Time” by Billy Joel.

This is a really awesome group because they are all talented singers who really care about their music, but also about each other, and having a fun experience in being a Melodic Minor.

So, check out the video linked in to this article to see their performance at the 2014 FHS winter concert.