Perfect Pitch and Note-A-Fy: two all-girls a cappella groups, fighting for the top a cappella spot at the high school. Are they rivals? Not so much.

Contrary to popular belief and the fact that they are often compared to each other, Perfect Pitch and Note-A-Fy are actually more similar than not.

Junior Lizzy Budden, a member of Note-A-Fy, said that one of the few differences is that Note-A-Fy does not have one elected leader, while Perfect Pitch does.

“We have no elected leader, which I don’t think is true for any of the other groups,” Budden said.

Senior Katie Suh explained how Perfect Pitch has three co-leaders, including herself. According to sophomore Katherine McElroy, those positions are given to seniors who have been in the group in years past.

“The seniors are technically the leaders, but a lot of their responsibilities are hosting practices at their house or something like that,” McElroy said. “You know, just being there for people.”

For Note-A-Fy member junior Ashley Choi, another major difference is the song choices of the two groups.

“I think that Perfect Pitch does more pop stuff that people know, whereas most of our songs people don’t really know,” Choi said. “We do Valerie by Amy Winehouse, and You Know I’m No Good, and then also we do a Beatles song. We do a huge variety whereas I think Perfect Pitch mostly does well known songs.”

According to Suh, their rehearsal times differ as well, which contributed to the perceived separation between the groups. Both Perfect Pitch and Testostatones, the male a cappella group, both rehearse during X-block.

“Because Note-A-Fy rehearses after school on Thursdays, we don’t get to see them during X-block,” Suh said. “So I feel like a lot of people feel like there’s more distance between the groups just because we don’t see each other as much, but there’s really no rivalry.”

According to Budden, the groups are actually quite similar. Not only do they sometimes perform together, but each of their respective groups value having a diverse group of people. She explained how they have access to members of different social groups that they would not have otherwise.

“It [a cappella] attracts anyone who’s interested in music and making music with other people who are passionate about it, but in more a social, relaxed environment than being in a choir,” Budden said.

Choi believes that the relationship between the groups is not like what many consider it to be. She expressed that there is no potential rivalry, as they are all friends.
“I think that it’s easy to feel that there is [a rivalry] because people are constantly putting us up against each other, but at the same time we’re friends with people in different groups and it’s not like, oh we’re better,” Choi said.  “It’s just kind of like we have mutual respect for each other because we know what it’s like to be in an a cappella group and because we also know what it’s like to constantly feel like we need to compete with each other, even though we don’t.”