Jamesville-DeWitt High School is introducing yet another music group to our department. They are the Shirley Tempos. "It's a bunch of girls getting together that love music and that's how they express themselves," says sophomore Rachel Heyman. "It's an all girl a capella group that's open to chorus students in ninth grade to 12th grade."

Heyman says she started the group because "there has always been all-boys a cappella group and we wanted to have an all-girls a cappella group." This is a student run group. "It's hard to choose people because we can't have a lot. We sent a Facebook message to all of the InAchord girls and two freshman girls," says Heyman.

Heyman arranges the music that they will be performing. This is a hard job because she has to transform the music to a cappella format, which can be time consuming.

Rehearsals are every Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Heyman's house. They split the altos into one room and the sopranos in the other. Luckily, Heyman has two grand pianos at her house. Snacks are provided, they get water breaks but usually they are pretty efficient about their time. Last rehearsal they learned two songs called "Respect" and "Under Pressure/Ice Ice Baby." The Shirley Tempos will be preforming at the June concert and will be performing as well as the Concert Choir, Select Choir and InAchord. At the moment, they are deciding whether to have a set uniform, or not.

Many of the girls in the group think this new experience is a good idea. "It's great that the girls are now being represented more, and I love the girl time, it's just really fun," says sophomore Hali Greenhouse.

"I think its been a long time coming - the guys have had their own group for five years," senior Rachel Fagut says.

"I think its awesome. We all love what we're doing and so far rehearsal has been really productive. We sound fantastic," says junior Emily Higgins.

"I think it's good because people have been wanting to do it for awhile now, and I think we sound really good together, just us girls. I'm just planing on having fun," says one of the two freshman in the group, Whitney Harrigan.

"I think it's a good because it encourages competition and I like to win," says junior Ben Harrison a member of the all-boys a cappella group, Testostertones.

Fellow junior and Testostertone member Steffen Wheelock agrees. "I think its a great idea. It's a way for girls to express their musical talents among their fellow women and have a great time doing it. I look forward to seeing what they can do with the talent they have," Wheelock says.

However, students like freshman Patrick LaRussa did have some reservations at first. "I was a little skeptical because I don't really hear many girl a cappella groups. But when I looked at the arrangements and talked to Rachel more about it, I realized they were really taking it seriously and from what I've heard, it sounds amazing," says Larussa.

The Shirley Tempos is planning on continuing into the next year. When the upperclassmen move on, others will step into leadership roles.

"It's adding the whole teamwork experience in the music department, especially because it's student-run. It's teaching me how important it is for all of us to work together," says Higgins.