Every Thursday and Saturday, 16 passionate singers meet to laugh and create music as they practice their songs.

Note-a-fy, an a cappella group for female and non-binary students, arranges all of its own music and provides a welcoming environment where members can share their music and be themselves. Founded over 20 years ago, the group is advised by music coordinator Michael Driscoll, but is largely student-led.

Auditions are held jointly with Perfect Pitch, another a cappella group at the high school. Students are sorted between the two groups for a second round of tryouts. According to senior Katya Sacharow, who has been in the group since her freshman year, the group you go to is determined by what your musical strengths are as well as how you might fit in with the team environment.

“A lot of times it’s who we see fitting in with the social scene in the group,” Sacharow said. “Perfect Pitch uses sheet music for instance, so someone who has good sight reading skills might be a better fit [for Perfect Pitch] versus someone who has really refined oral skills would be great for Note-a-fy.”

Senior Lina Chang, who has been in the group since Chang’s freshman year, said that Note-a-fy’s inclination to oral skills made it appealing.

“One thing that made me drawn to Note-a-fy is that we don’t use sheet music when we learn our pieces. I don’t really know a lot about reading music, so that kind of made it more approachable,” Chang said.

Sacharow said that Note-a-fy functions largely independently; they make all of their own arrangements by recording them on GarageBand and teaching them to the group.

“We do have help from our advisor, but for the most part we handle our funds, we handle our arrangements and our concerts,” Sacharow said.

Senior Annabelle Gardner, who has been part of the group since her freshman year, said anyone can arrange songs and present them to the rest of the group.

“Arranging is a great way to get new songs into the rotation and a chance for everyone to become a little bit more confident in their arranging and musical theory abilities,” Gardner said.

Sacharow said that the group has continued to perform many of its past songs.

“We try to preserve a lot of our old songs that can date back to many, many years ago that we still teach so that we can keep the Note-a-fy repertoire strong,” Sacharow said.

Chang said that Note-a-fy allows members to get more experience in singing areas outside of their comfort zones.

“I started beatboxing for some of the songs, which is really cool because last year we had one of the seniors who did all the beatboxing, but she left so all of us got together and tried to start beatboxing and tried to learn it,” Chang said. “That was a skill I started out for fun in middle school and the beginning of high school, and then it became a real thing that I worked at.”

Soloists are often selected through an audition process to perform by themselves during performances. Sacharow said that the group does a good job of making sure that soloists feel comfortable when singing by themselves.

“We do a process where we all have to sing the first line of a song so that we all have to sing something. That way the people who are auditioning for the solo aren’t feeling on the spot and we try to encourage everyone to audition for as many solos as they can,” Sacharow said. “It’s also a really nice feeling to have these people that I trust with me on performance days when I’m feeling nervous so we all know that we have each other’s backs.”

Gardner said that she would advise anyone interested to give Note-a-fy a shot.

“There are so many amazing opportunities at the high school to be able to sing, so if you love that, you’ll definitely be able to do that throughout the high school,” Gardner said. “We love when people try out and we have new spots next year so definitely come to audition; just be yourself, be confident and have fun.”