What I've Learned

I fell in love six times last week, all at the same moment. The oldest of my loves is 22, the youngest, 12.

Perhaps I should explain.

Several years ago, a group called Lulu and the Lampshades recorded a song called When I'm Gone. The accompaniment is played on a plastic cup.

Learn to do this and you will be the epitome of cool. Begin with a plastic cup sitting mouth down on a table. Clap your hands twice. Tap the bottom of the cup (or the table) with three alternating taps (left hand, right hand, left hand). Clap your hands once. Pick up the cup. Set it back down.

Done rhythmically, it sounds like: clap clap, tap tap tap, clap, pause, clop.

The second part of the rhythm also starts with the cup mouth down.

Clap once. Grab the neck of the cup, then lift and turn so the mouth is exposed. Smack the palm of your free hand against the open mouth of the cup. Knock the bottom edge of the cup against the table once. Put the cup in the other hand with a slapping motion. Hit the table once with the palm of your free hand. Set the cup down, mouth downward.

The rhythm sounds like this: clap, pause, clop, knock, slap, hit, clop.

In both rhythms, the cup is lifted with a slight sweeping motion so that the pause actually makes a small sound as well.

These two consecutive rhythms are repeated while singing the song, You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone.

Playing the rhythm and singing at the same time takes a bit of practice. A Hollywood actress, Anna Kendrick, learned to do it just for fun.

Later, while making the film, Pitch Perfect, she was demonstrating this little skill between takes. When the director saw it, he said, "I want that in the movie." So there is a short scene in which Kendrick's character plays the cup rhythm and sings When I'm Gone for an audition.

That was in 2012. In the year since the movie came out, hundreds – I'm not kidding, hundreds – of people have made videos of themselves singing the cup song.

When I stumbled across one of these, it was so intriguing, I search for more.

People have done it solo. People have done it as duets, using two cups. Two guys used a single cup, passing it back and forth after each rhythm sequence. Four girls, each with a cup, sang the song as a round, playing the two rhythm parts as a round as well.

After watching a couple of dozen renditions, I had all but overdosed. It was then a video by a group called Cimorelli (sim-or-EL-ee) caught my eye and my hand clicked on it from what, by that time, was force of habit.

Be still my heart. I'm not sure if I fell in love with Cimorelli during the singing or afterward during several minutes of hilarious bloopers.

The six girls of Cimorelli – Christina, Katherine, Lisa, Amy, Lauren, and Dani – are sisters. Cimorelli's their last name.

If you read this column regularly, you know what a low opinion I have of pop music these days. The songwriting is appalling. Cimorelli, sadly, sings mostly current pop music.

I don't care. They could sing the phone book, and I'd listen. Their harmonies are exquisite. But it's not just their singing, it's their personalities that grabbed me. They are funny. They are kind – sisterly, in fact – to each other. They are well-mannered. They are modest in dress. They are smart. And they are hard working.

I'm not the only one who has fallen in love with Cimorelli. Most of their music videos have three to five million views on YouTube. A few have as many as 30 million.

If you decide to watch some of the When I'm Gone cup videos, don't miss the one by my new favorite group.