Music

When BYU PhD candidate Kristine Monteith was sitting in natural language processing class, it wasn't letter sequences going through her head but music notes. The class was talking about probability in language that helps with speech recognition of knowing what words would come up next. When she did the experiment, "It made me think, oh, you could do the same thing with music," Monteith said. The Utah State graduate in music therapy pursuing her PhD in computer at BYU decided to apply her right and left brain abilities to combine music and computer science. She invented a computer program that can compose original music that evokes emotions humans can relate with, even though it was generated from a machine. She explained the program follows random notes and plugs in which notes would fit the best.

In between watching himself and his friends sing on national television and attending his BYU classes, Vocal Point’s Robert Seely still runs the window washing business that he started before his mission. He also picks up a few shifts at the BYU Creamery, except now that he’s appearing on NBC’s “The Sing-Off” – watch Monday at 7 p.m. MT – he has to deal with coworkers asking to take photos with him. “It really surprises me that four or five times a day, while I’m walking across campus, people come up to me and say, ‘Aren’t you the bass in Vocal Point?’” Seely says. “I don’t have any solos, and, I mean, even I didn’t know who the basses were in Vocal Point before I joined.”

Whether it's a monumental heartbreak or a child with a mouthful of mac 'n' cheese, songwriter Hilary Weeks seems to take inspiration from every part of her life. On this new album called "Every Step," recorded in Nashville, Tenn., you'll hear 10 new songs from tender to jubilant — like "Living Proof" and "Past the Point" — and a bonus remake of one of her classics, "All My Days."

This can apply to all sorts of reality-ish contests, but I want to focus on Vocal Point for two reasons. First, they are very, very good at what they do. I’ve yet to hear the judges say anything critical about them. Second, they really want you to know that these clean-cut, well-dressed, physically-fit men are heterosexual. I mean really heterosexual. The kind of heterosexual that goes on “filmed for a national audience” type group dates that include belting out show tunes, while not at all looking like a polyamorous collective.

Two groups tied to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Brigham Young University wowed judges of "The Sing-Off" and won the right to perform in another round of competition on the NBC reality show.