Back In Time With Pentatonix 

Sorry for the poor sound quality. It seems to be peaking on my voice. Hope you enjoy the video!

Great reaction. Thank you.

Very nice reaction….she is amazing!

I second the " Can You Feel The Love Tonight " comment. Its an amazing cover.

I loved the question about how they remember everything, particularly the beatboxer! I've wondered the same thing because Avi often will carry some bass notes without lyrics, then jump in with a word or two, then back to bass. I don't see how they do it!

Great questions Vivi. There is a short film, The Recording Of Evergreen. It shows a bit of the process. Great to see you two back.

During the Sing-Off competition, which PTX won in 2011 to start their careers, one of the judges, Shawn Stockman, who sang with the group Boyz II Men, told them that since Kevin and Avi worked so well together, they were the "meat and potatoes" of the group. This was a reference to the belief that meat and potatoes were required staples for a typical American family meal to be a good meal, due to the fact that meat and potatoes taste so good together.

A note for you, start with the early Pentatonix music the bass singer is Avi Kaplan, and in 2017 he stepped out and Matt Saltee started doing the bass singing. it is amazing just how good these people are, and guess they have some recognition for it, 3 Grammys, over 5.5 Billion views on RU-vid. So lots to hear and lots to see. there are 11 Albums, a few compolations, and Oh, they have a few Christmas Albums too. So it could keep you busy for a while.

Recommend their 90s Dance Medley.

Since you mentioned The Lion King you should check out Pentatonix singing Can You Feel the Love Tonight. It is epic.

At the time this video was filmed, Avi (bass) and Kevin (beatboxer) shared an apartment and spent a lot of time teaching each other their specialty and doing some arranging. The other 3 actually grew up together in Texas and went to school there, so their ability to work together so well goes way back.

They always had magic together. Avi leaving tore me up but now happy for him. You should try some of Avi's solo music. He's incredible. Not just another pretty bass!

Welcome back you guys! You’re right Scott, while we appreciate your efforts, we do love our Vivi. First time hearing this, and I appreciate Avi giving the bass a little synth type distortion, after sounding like a bass fiddle, or cello the beginning. Vivi noticed the sick bass drop, both times and you could see that it gave her a bit of a rush. That’s why she’s so popular.

Gotye said he loved this cover. His dad found it first and sent him the link!

Thanks Great Reaction!!

Good to see you both back.

This was their first viral video. New subscriber for Pentatonix. Love you two. Greetings from Southern California. 👋🏼also I Agee David Phillips. You must check out their recording of Evergreen. It’s AMAZING

Usually PTX demonstrates how they'd arrange with Kevin starting and then Avi/Matt joins in and then the trio joins in. Kevin is a classically trained instrumentalist (piano, cello and sax) so he's solid in remembering/charting whatever he comes up with.

Babytonix! This was recorded shortly after Epic reneged on the recording contract they'd "won" on _The Sing-Off._ They pooled the $200,000 they'd also won and were using it as seed money. The men shared two apartments to save on rent and they bought nothing that they didn't absolutely need. They spent their days arranging music and rehearsing, and whenever they had a new song ready they'd record themselves on an iPhone and post it to RU-vid. They were actively searching for locations with good acoustics where they could record; I think this was in the basement of the apartment building where they lived.

Thats our baby Tonix

Babytonix on the grind, after they got dropped from their recording contract after winning the Sing Off. Lesson to those with a dream: never give up 🤘

Oh geez, you guys are so cute!

Watch “The Making of Evergreen” to see their recording process. It’s amazing.

Vivi had some good questions, I'm not sure (if I'm interpreting what she said correctly) that they were really answered. Yes, everyone's singing part can be written down in normal musical notation - but how do you write down what the beatboxer is doing? If he's doing a regular snare, or kickdrum, or cymbal, those notations are available. But if he's doing some sort of trill, or breath (which Kevin does a lot of), or a noise that can't really be described easily (as Layne Stein in VoicePlay often does) - how do you write that down? Does each beatboxer makes up their own completely unique notation? Or are there beatboxer "standards" that have their own notations these days? Or does a beatboxer just have to remember everything he does in all of the songs he does? Very interesting questions.

Pentatonix does call themselves a band. I've seen an interview with Mitch, Scott, Avi, and Kevin where they were asked to improvise something on the spot. They explained that it wouldn't be very good because Kirstie wasn't there, but then went ahead. Scott asked Kevin and Avi to lay down a beat, Kevin started it and Avi added the bass to Kevin's rhythm, and then Scott and Mitch improvised something on top of that. And they were right - it WASN'T very good, but the main reason was that they were improvising on the spot, with no chance to confer about lyrics, key, or melody. My point is primarily about how their bass and percussion work together. Kevin is responsible for establishing the rhythm, and Avi or Matt backs him up; those bass notes are one reason Kevin's beatboxing sounds so full, so much like real drums. Additionally, Avi or Matt contributes the bass part of the harmony; it's a really big job. And when the bass takes a solo Scott takes over the bass's underlying responsibilities - it's a good thing Scott's a workaholic!

Lol, so far off base!!! They get together and sing, hammer out the individual parts by group decisions. This "organic style" allows them to kick out a song like this in a few days, as polished and resingable. thanks for the reaction!!😁😁😎

Babytonix!

They did a video of them doing the evergreen album it shows alot of the process they go through to put out a song 😊😊😊