Acapella Cover Reaction and Breakdown! My Mother Told Me by VoicePlay

Accompany me through this incredible rendition of a Viking Shanty as I geek out over notes high and low, and break down what makes a really good acapella performance!
Original video being reacted to: • My Mother Told Me | Vo...
VoicePlay (cover artist): / @thevoiceplay
Jose Rosario Jr (guest star): / @rockapella
Support me on Patreon! / mortius
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Aaaand support this video you just watched by liking, commenting, and subscribing. See y'all next time!

[@wolkenpfote0981]

My favorite comment below the original video is still: Layne - Geoff how long can you hold an F1? Geoff - Yes.

[@skj91]

My favorite comment is: "If you got a low voice, that vibrates nearby objects, you're a bass. But... if your friends ask you to be a stand in for a viking warhorn... you're Geoff Castellucci..."

[@mityakiselev]

My favourite one is something like *"BROTHERS BRACE YOURSELVES THE SHIPS OF RAGNAROK ARE CO~* oh nvm it's just Geoff"

[@Pluddergnyf77]

'I swear I'm not gonna pause all the time!' Voiceplay: 'Aww, that's so sweet..'

[@Spectralyzed]

Voiceplay: "But I'm afraid that's not going to happen."

[@smallfamily2604]

I've been absolutely ecstatic watching reactors completely geeking out about this song!!! Awesome reaction!

[@BrettHondow]

F1's are now and forever hereby decreed: "That Geoff Note".

[@Mark_Agamotto1313_Smith]

As has the B0, especially when held for 10-15 seconds. How long till they need to invent a negative scale? Just for Geoff?

[@stormdancer0]

Your delight in the miracles of the human voice has gained my subscription.

[@importedice]

Nice reaction! With the growth of acapella fans now, given Pentatonix, Home Free, Straight No Chaser, Street Corner Symphony, VoicePlay, and others, there's plenty of room for an acapella reactor, even if you've seen older videos and want to go back. 👍

[@TheNotSeeingEye]

Fun Fact: the vocal technique used at 4:08 is called Sub Harmonics and basically requires you to grumble a certain way while singing to produce a pitch exactly an octave down! Also while singing a Sub Harmonic note you can control the level of audible harmonics with your mouth

[@officialmortius]

Subharmonics are super duper cool. Geoff (the only performing the note in question) actually has video tutorials about the technique on his channel! I’ve never been able to pull them off myself though.

[@TheNotSeeingEye]

@@officialmortius yeah they are really dope! I’ve been practicing them for the past year or so and i can sing them pretty consistently and sing down to a low Ab (the Ab above the F in the video)

[@cheyendijk1750]

@@officialmortius can you listen close to the solo from Geoff at 09:47 the way he says the word "me" in my mother told "me" just.... goosebumps. With so much feelings and emotion. And if you at 0:30 sec Geoff almost sounds like a real viking horn.

[@greybenauer9803]

A lot of people don’t know that Layne has his own channel. He has done songs with his family and it’s so adorable. Y’all should check it out if you haven’t already. ❤️

[@MagicMason1000]

*ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo* That note was literally just a cool-sounding burp.

[@officialmortius]

Lol!! As NotSeeingEye pointed out, it’s something called sub-harmonics... but even a professional opera singer has compared Geoff’s low notes to a burp before, so I’ll let it slide ;)

[@LegendGaming-gg2pc]

The classic promise i wont pause to much and then pause 😂. But in reality, loved the vid and reactions.... and now the song and group.

[@officialmortius]

I should know better than to make promises like that... lol. But thanks for the love! VoicePlay is one of my favorite artists out there, definitely worth checking out their other vids! Plus, I’ll definitely be doing this again, so whenever a new song of theirs comes out, you can look forward to my reaction for it :D

[@wolkenpfote0981]

I honestly prefer reactions like this XD It makes it immediately clear what the one reacting thinks is cool and it shows the hype XD If I wanna listen to the song without interruptions I'll listen to the original.

[@Wraithfire27]

When the F1 Hits O-faces go everywhere.

[@jaceyswainston4965]

He comes at this with the same energy that I react to any a capella and I absolutely live for it😂💜💜💜💜

[@WelcomeApathy]

I really liked your reaction and breakdown! I love watching reactions to Voiceplay (and Geoff's solos) so if you do more, I will be here. I liked that you pointed out a bunch of specific points, and made a point to say who each person was as you talked about them. And you gave attention to Layne, both with his singing and percussion. He doesn't get enough love, and he's so talented. Thank you for that! And I enjoyed that you went in and said he arranged it, too. I love the details behind the scenes, so it makes me happy to see someone else bring focus to them. Don't know if you knew, but they filmed this at Pattycake Productions, the studio that Layne and Tony Wakim (a VP member before J None) run. They've done other ones there, and Geoff filmed his Sixteen Tons there. Such good quality videos! I hope you do more reactions to their stuff! PS - btw, Eli is pronounced Ellie.

[@-.NYX.-]

right off the bat .. "WTF"... LOL.. Um That would be Geoff.... Love your face reactions!! great job!!M♥♥♥

[@cynthiaross9438]

I'm beginning to think WTF may be Geoff's real name...so many people say that.

[@snapsnowbear683]

It's so awesome to see someone so enthusiastic, this was fun to watch and such a great song too!

[@tashachick6904]

Totally agree! Nothing worse than watching a reaction video where they barely say anything or change their facial expression. I love that he’s loving this so much

[@guypithecusthe1st453]

Rockapella and Jose Rosario are still going strong. Rockapella started the a capella sound in the '90's, and Jeff Thatcher was the first vocal percussionist. One of my favorites of their newer videos is "How 'Bout Now?" Check it out. ... Guy

[@daniellechance5838]

I love your first Layne reaction! Total Geoff stan here, but Layne BLEW me away in this.

[@megaroni4765]

I've been watching a lot of reaction videos for these guys and Home Free recently, and yours is exceptionally fun and informative. Keep doing your thing.

[@PiscesintheRain]

Great reaction! I really enjoyed that, even though you professed your love for bass singing, you definitely gave everyone their due. Geoff is definitely a beast when it comes to bass, but Eli got that rock tenor that just *kills* it. And Layne, as always, sounds like he swallowed an entire drum kit. Anyway, subbed, and I definitely look forward to seeing more from you!

[@chrismorin1318]

I don't know what it is, but I adore it when Eli hits us with that hard hitting belt! He does it in Carry on Wayward Son too! There's just such a sharp gritty edge to it.

[@wallen308]

Loved your reaction. So nice to see someone so excited about it. Happy new subscriber.

[@emstorm73]

Cool reaction. I loved watching as you heard that first "Geoff note" :-D. Just to let you know, Eli's name isn't pronounced EE-lie, it's pronounced "EL-lee". I didn't know for a long time, so I thought, if you're going to be reacting to them, you should be aware. I look forward to seeing more of your reactions in the future.

[@officialmortius]

Oh, thanks so much for the heads up! I had no idea it was pronounced that way. I’ll definitely be doing more reactions like this in the future, I hope to see you there :)

[@tatewakinew]

@@officialmortius Just for the info - it is an old Hebrew name and it is how it's originally pronounced.

[@lkayh]

@@officialmortius It’s actually short for Eliezer. Which is like, my absolute favorite Hebrew male name. I knew a great man with that name.

[@veronicathunander4579]

Loved your reaction, you’re so enthusiastic, show so much appreciation for all of them and notice so many details! I’m so glad that you did a reaction for this! I understand that you’ve seen all from VoicePlay and Geoff, but yes, I’d definitely be here for analyses of the songs you’ve already watched!

[@johndeeregreen4592]

If you listen, he stretches to an E1, sliding into an F1 with that foghorn note. Incredible, to say the least.

[@PhanieGau]

Love your reaction, I can see you're new to this. If you do more of VoicePlay reactions, I might subscribe to your channel, just saying, they're my favourites. :)

[@lizdyson3627]

Hi Mortius, I've just watched this entire playlist. It's my fav voiceplay song too. You're so lovely.

[@lkreinmiller-author]

First time watching you. AWESOME reaction!!

[@RhamanaChan]

I love the fact there's an NSP clip in here

[@chaddecker4886]

Mortius -- I've watched countless reactions to VoicePlay, and even more for Geoff Castellucci's solo work. Your reactions (and Analysis') are, by far, my favorite. Your channel is the first for me to click the bell so I get notifications for everything you post. Thanks & keep doing the awesome stuff you do.

[@officialmortius]

When I eventually have the room and budget to dedicate a whole room to content creation, I want to frame this comment and put it on my wall. Thank you so much for the compliments, and I hope you keep enjoying the content as it comes :)

[@jaceyswainston4965]

I just subbed! I love your reactions and the energy you bring to it is just phenomenal! You should definitely react to Home Free and Voiceplay more! Loved it mate!

[@Trickpants]

I hope you'll do more reactions / breakdowns, or even breakdowns of videos you've already watched! I found it incredibly interesting and your reactions are really nice :D I felt ecstatic watching this along with you!

[@DravenGal]

“Exceptional,” good word, but multiply it by 100. I love the fact that you love Voiceplay so much you can’t wait to review them, want to watch them NOW! And yeah, this is going in the list of VP favorites. Though there aren’t any I don’t like, just some I like a little less than others.

[@mawe9518]

Nice reaction 😊 Just subbed 😊More Voiceplay and Geoff's solo work please 😁 And I'd love to see your reaction to Geoff's tutorial videos (How to sing low etc) 😁

[@officialmortius]

Thanks for joining the sub crew! I’ve already seen everything Geoff and VoicePlay have released... if there’s a lot of people who want it, I could do an analysis of some of the videos, but it wouldn’t actually be a “reaction”... but either way, rest assured, reactions will be coming out for future videos :)

[@carinalundstrom7566]

Home Free Sea shanty medley is awesome too

[@jackyfriedman1963]

Voiceplay released their new video on patreon yesterday. They're Vikings again. All I can say is.. Epic.!!

[@caitlinb.5267]

I know this is an old video, but I love the song, so I had to watch/comment. Your reactions are the BEST. I love seeing people get ridiculously excited over stuff. And A+ tie choosing skills.

[@nikkibanning176]

Really love your enthusiasm. So much fun.

[@StooPidasso]

Mr. Rosario sings with Rockappella, a group of which you may have heard. #WhereInTheWorldIsCarmenSanDiego

[@booosadan]

I got so hype when you showed Danny Don't you know for a split second 😭❤️

[@ginanowell8842]

Have you seen their Road Trip? Just hilarious!!!

[@christineschutten8101]

I just subscribed and will be looking forward to see more reactions.

[@buntyshuffler6018]

Hey Mortius, I was hitting your back catalog with some love and saw the NSP reference. Love you both!

[@FINFOXBOX]

The beatboxer had control over the song so you thank him for this beauty

[@taluriell]

i love how excited you are that's so cute and the costumes AHH oh and btw, 'Eli' is pronounced 'ally' and not 'eel eye' xd

[@ashleysheree7057]

I would love to see your analysis of their cover of Go The Distance. It's amazing!

[@chrismorin1318]

New subscriber here! Loved the reaction. I don't know if you've covered any Home Free, but they have a Sea Shanty Medley that is insane! I know this song by Voice Play is more Viking in origin, but Home Free does a great job in all genres.

[@tashachick6904]

“Speaking of get it” 😂😂😂

[@Scudge0]

The Didgeoffridoo is just...WOW...

[@YtprophetWZ]

The subharmonics are when you hit a chest note and then slowly slip into vocal fry. He was doing an F1 subharmonic that time, but technically he was hitting an F2.

[@DravenGal]

Oh, and every one of your pauses was totally understandable!

[@Biohybr1d]

Just so you're aware, Eli pronounces his name "Elly". I don't quite understand but it's his name.

[@PiscesintheRain]

It's because it's short for his actual name, Eliezer (pronounced ell-ee-AY-zer). Thus, gets shortened to ell-ee

[@rebeccafoust2963]

Must be Hebrew, or similar regional origin, All the Eli's I have heard with this pronunciation have strong associations with Israel.

[@cynthiaross9438]

@@rebeccafoust2963 Yup. He's Jewish.

[@55Christer]

In the beginning, Geoff only shows how Vikinghorn sounds.

[@samtaylor9293]

Hell yeah hello fellow NSP fan

[@3912James]

4:30 "FOGHORN ALERT!!!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@bjspeck4337]

This is so cool. Let me mention that VoicePlay dropped Hellfire today. Geoff's got a great part!

[@officialmortius]

It was fabulous!!

[@annemchurchwell]

I am personally hoping that they add Jose on a permanent bases. I think he's a good blend in with them.

[@Vildash]

Epic performance

[@christinestromberg4057]

Strictly speaking not a shanty, which is a particular style of song, but words from an Icelandic Viking saga. Good reaction. If no one has yet mentioned it Eli is pronounced as Elly. Most of their songs are arranged by either Layne ir Geoff with a few exceptions. I believe Eli arrnanged Eleanor Rigby. Incidentally Eli created the backgrounds for this one.

[@godimlarge]

I love that you used nsp as your example. They need to be far more well known

[@angelam.stoutart3824]

Awesome reaction. I love Voiceplay. They are my favorite group. If you want to hear one man that can sing from bass to soprano check out Dimash Kudaibergen. The song SOS will change your world.

[@amylynn5141]

Eli is actually pronounced "Ellie"

[@ericdravenashecorven]

Now they need to do If I Had a Heart.

[@abbienormals1669]

6:37 I have been a huge GameGrumps fan for many years and only in the last couple months discovered you. I can't tell you how happy it made me to see you post a clip of "Danny Don't You Know," by Ninja Sex party. Somehow it didn't surprise me, though, that you're also a fan of Danny.

[@officialmortius]

Danny and I also share a birthday! Little fun fact there

[@nightthornkvala94132]

Doesn't matter how many time I listen to this song, every time Geoff hits that low note that goes lower, my jaw drops lower and lower as it goes on and on.

[@kiracattan4624]

Yeah, that bass oice rocks the socks off of anyone who hears it!

[@lkayh]

I love this one too. Everybody is so darned good! If you are into bass singers, definitely check out the Bass Gang. They’re still getting going, so production values are not quite at this level, but pretty darned good arrangements, and they’re all great bass singers.

[@seaborgium919]

Are we the same person? Your reaction to Geoff's bass voice is exactly the same as mine. Every time I hear it i get a bit gayer

[@ASLLover666]

🤣

[@CaseyCassidy]

speaking of background and very low notes - take a listen to Home Free's cover of Sold! because idk how many people catch how INSANE that song is to listen to. it gives me chills (if i have headphones in) ever time. also love your reactions!

[@novacide7331]

Jose is one of the original members of rockapella they are the ones who do the original Folgers commercial "the best part of waking up"

[@par500dragon7]

For more incredible Geoff Castellucci, you should check out Sixteen Tons and Blackbird.

[@travisvalentine9012]

Subscribed. Commenting to help out the algorithm. You and I have a lot in common in terms of our vocal music backgrounds, I like your thoughts.

[@rhov-anion]

11:11 Technically, B# does exist. It's enharmonic to C, but you'll find it in some scales. I know, because I have to explain to other band members WHY a composer wrote a B# and not a C. "Because we're playing in C# melodic minor and... JUST CUZ!" Then I have to explain what the heck double sharps are. Fun times.

[@kyokonightstorm5844]

I think it was on the original but it might have been on another reaction, but I saw a comment about how Geoff is the only one with a cave for a background, reflecting the depth of his low notes.

[@colleenstapleton2120]

Try Pentatonix. All songs are excellent. They have a recent 90's Medley you could react to.

[@billholder1330]

Eli is looking particularly deceased in this one. They should've given him blue eyes too, for a nice GOT reference. ;)

[@tracyz9155]

Thanks for your reaction. Go full a capella. Try reaction to more Voice Play but also Home Free, Pentatonix and even Straight No Chaser. I’ll wait for the next reaction

[@jussarapontesdacruz7664]

Excepcional!!!!

[@oldguydoesstuff120]

Eli pronounces his name as in the first part of Elliot. Might want to update your pronunciation for the future.

[@josephchiasson4760]

So... when are you going to start reacting to Home Free to experience their angelic vocals?

[@AmeliascreationofA-line]

Is it just me or does it sound like Geoff from voiceplay is having fun being a bass in the background…? 🧐🤔👂🎧🤯🤞🏻😊

[@michaelpowls9087]

If you like Geoffs bass you should check out Home Free bass singer Tim Foust

[@DravenGal]

Wait, “That doesn’t stop them from being less fun.” Huh?

[@ConnorSinclairCavin]

So, did anyone else think of the 5 magic the gathering clans when they saw the outfits on this? (Maybe colorless for Layne, not white mana… not sure)

[@carolholmes3633]

While I love Home Free for my country music, you need to listen to the A Capella group Pentatonix. They are great and Mitch is an out of this world singer and the rest are great singers in there own right. I would suggest that you start with Amazing Grace. Their Hallelujah has over 650 million views. If you like A Capella you have to listen to them.

[@tomfulton8934]

i realy like but i love too sing along to the old nose version skól

[@Goldenhawk583]

React to acapella group Home Free, song Ring of fire with guest Avi Kaplan

[@Robert.Sheard]

My only request is that the music video levels compared to your levels need a boost.

[@dylanthurlow4610]

check out Hellfire by tomi p

[@gabrielangel1923]

you should react to tomi p.'s bass cover of "hellfire". frankly, I don't care for most of his stuff, but his voice gives this song such a creepy and shivering edge that I love it.

[@witchqueen783]

I wish Layne would sing more.

[@seonaelizabethcoster8465]

Some people sing bass. Thats not enough for Geoff. Geoff decided to be a Vikingr War Horn whe he grew up.

[@42SV692s]

Excuse my late reply my friend! But te LOW one at "Shores" is an F1 ! just for reference"! ;-P You go right ahead and practice that and achieve it without fire breath, or subharmonic if you can.! ;-P ,-) hehe Have a great one all of yous! ;-P

[@squeakyfrog8712]

11:08 B# does exist, it's just C natural, but it certainly shouldn't exist and it should simply be called C natural.

[@Goldenhawk583]

That doesnt stop them from being less fun... hmmm, one word too many, or change career? lol

[@officialmortius]

Lol!! I caught that while editing and was too lazy to re-record, you’re the first person to notice (or at least the first to say anything about it)

[@phoebica]

Rude

[@ginanowell8842]

Eli is pronounced Ellie

[@bradclifton5248]

Eli pronounced Ellie.

[@alhidayatgerning]

lol🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@debrabouchez4270]

I don't like it when you (or other reactors) put a snippet of your best reaction at the beginning. Talk about an unnecessary spoiler. Why??

[@shercahn]

Do you react to Home Free?

[@officialmortius]

This was my first reaction ever, actually! I’ve been primarily on twitch for the last year and a half, and am only now working to build my KZbin presence. I’ve seen most of Home Free’s work, so it wouldn’t be a very exciting or genuine reaction if I did that, but maybe next time they release something new I’ll do a reaction for that too :)

[@Hituvuvuvu]

Jesus loves you

[@davidbangtson3109]

I'll be slowly catching up on your reactions, but need to warn you in advance. I have a strong preference for PTXX, so don't be surprised if we disagree at times.

[@officialmortius]

Well, I wish their copyright system wasn’t so terrible so that I could actually feature them on my channel more 🤷‍♂️

[@davidbangtson3109]

@@officialmortius Most of us fans would be happy to hear the audio only and your comments about it. Also, slanting the pop-up screen works very well and still makes the video portion quite easily seen. If I remember the reactor that uses that technique I'll let you know.