After weeks of practice, it finally paid off this weekend for Manhattan High School’s music department. On Saturday, small groups of musicians in Manhattan High traveled to Lawrence to perform at the All State Solo and Ensemble competition.

From the choir, each of three groups took three songs. Those groups scored at least a two, on a scale from one to five.

“So basically our three small groups, Bel’ Voce, Varsity and Pops, all took two songs and sang them for judges and they score us from one to five, one being the best,”  junior, Varsity singer Grace Gallagher said. “Pops and Bel-Voce got a one, and Varsity got a two. Overall that’s really good.”

Students who performed in the orchestra section got scores above threes.

“We did pretty well, as far as the orchestra we were pretty well balanced between ones and twos,” senior, violinist, Kyle Thompson said. “There were a couple of threes in there, but overall decent.”

In the weeks of practice before the competition, students in the choir learned how to perform as a group and not become selfish with movements.

“We learned the piece about a few weeks before regionals and we practiced it quite a bit.” Sophomore, Bel’ Voce singer, Emily Willi said. “Definitely worked on consonances and phrasing a lot, because it is such a moving song. It was just a lot of practice. Once we got all that done we learned how to stand in a horse shoe and sing to each other and feed off of each other. And not being selfish with your movement and actions.”

The song that the Bel’ Voce took was very different from what they are used to singing.

“We warmed up and then we sang in front of a judge in their auditorium, one song [Wallie, Wallie by Michael Cleveland],” sophomore, Bel’ Voce singer, Riley Taylor said. “It’s about death, so it’s not a very happy song. It’s kind of slow and soft.”

Compared to last year, the day of the competition was set up differently in the order of things.

“Well last year to Lawrence, the whole day we roamed around the whole campus until we had to sing,” Taylor said. “Which was later in the day and this year, we had to sing in the morning. So we didn’t have much time to do anything. Like, we just stayed in the school the whole day. We were more experienced this year and more prepared for what was gonna happen.”

Many students performed in a different group than they have done previously.

“Well this my first year in a small group, I’ve taken solos before,” Gallagher said. “Being in the small group is different because you don’t feel quite alone. It definitely took stress off singing in front of the judges.”

While, others branched out to become more independent. Taking less teaching and tutoring from professionals.

“The past years that I’ve done it I’ve had a lot of teaching, but this year I was more independent with my own solo,” Thompson said. “I didn’t get much help with like a teacher or a professional.”

The musicians that went learned the potential of their talents.

“Well we know what we are capable of, we still know that there is stuff that we can fix and make better,” Taylor said.