If harmonious, melodic music is something you enjoy listening to or even making, then RV’s new a cappella group “The Ditty Committee” may be of interest to you. Led by juniors Elijah Morman, Ayana Diaz, Jason Blain and Chloe Edwards, who are all also RV choir members, this student-run club has made its presence known in the RV community through posting song covers on their Instagram page highlighting solely the voices of their members. Here’s everything you need to know about the new club, including how it came to be, how it’s run, how you can join and what you can expect to see from them in the near future.

Many of you may be wondering how students could start up a club like this themselves. According to junior and club originator Elijah Morman, he had always loved a cappella and wanted to start a club at RV since his freshman year. Morman along with senior Tyler Myers were the “driving forces,” and “passion behind the whole club,” as explained by Blain. 

According to Morman, the formation of this club was simply “a student with an idea, a student being pushed by another student.” Of their adviser, Bruce Wiley, Morman said that they wanted someone “who didn’t want to take the reins of everything… because [they] want it to be student-run,” this was an extremely important part of the process. 

As for the rest of the officers, Diaz adds that “we joined after [Elijah] got the club situated.” The officers’ credit their cohesiveness as a club to the fact that many of them have created a bond through being in choir together. 

With admin approval the club was ready to take in members, and the officers made it very clear that they “have no requirements and want this club to be as open as possible.” Each month meetings are held where members’ ideas are pitched to the other members and they can choose which song groups they will be a part of. From there song arrangements are made and each officer records a demo section in their vocal part for members to “listen to [them] and then record on their own,” as explained by Diaz. 

Morman reinforces the officers’ earlier comment on not having requirements and states that “[they] work with what you’ve got and mold it to the club expectation,” when finalizing and mixing songs. 

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ditty Committee cannot have live performances. In turn, they’ve had to be strategic in using social media as a platform to grow their club. Edwards describes how the club uses social media, specifically Instagram, to “cater to people’s interest…[by] always being active and even trying to do [collaborations] with other clubs for the shared publicity.” The club has been consistently posting covers to songs on their page such as “Best Mistake” by Ariana Grande, “Helpless” from the musical Hamilton and the club’s favorite, the Veteran’s Day tribute.

For the holiday season, the Ditty Committee plans on releasing a Twelve Days of Christmas series on their Instagram beginning December 13 along with the release of a Christmas medley. The Ditty Committee wants all students who may be interested in joining to know that “experience or not you are welcome and anything you have to provide [whether it be] mixing, rapping, beatboxing [they] are welcoming new members with open arms.” 

To find more information about The Ditty Committee, visit their Instagram page @rvdittycom.