Nancy Cheng is an English major and pre-med junior at Duke University, where she is also a member of the group Out of the Blue. She enjoys shower-singing, hemiolas, and funk. Nancy writes Members Only once a month for The A Cappella Blog.

I know a lot of groups that fit many hours of rehearsal into one week. I’ve heard of everything from 2 hours for the casual group to 6 hours for the more dedicated. Regardless of how much time you put into your group, putting more into one rehearsal makes your rehearsals fun, exciting, and (most importantly) more productive.

Recently my group elected me music director for the next year, and one of my priorities is making sure that rehearsals go smoothly and as efficiently at possible. I plan on improving things ranging from big to small: from the logistics of running rehearsal to learning music more quickly.

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Nancy Cheng is an English major and pre-med junior at Duke University, where she is also a member of the group Out of the Blue. She enjoys shower-singing, hemiolas, and funk. Nancy writes Members Only once a month for The A Cappella Blog.

I was playing Out of the Blue’s version of Just for Now (by Imogen Heap) that’s going to go on our next CD for my music teacher the other day, and we got to talking about a cappella in general, and how he really isn’t a huge fan of it. I asked him why: was it the syllables, the sometimes silly blocking, the weird arch to which most groups default? Nope. The one thing that made him completely unable to stand a cappella was the percussion.

His main criticisms were that people tried to make sounds that didn’t fit the songs, or that all they did was make weird sounds that rang hollow, without any conviction behind it. So, maybe my music teacher is the odd one out of the bunch of casual a cappella listeners, but I think he has a few good points, especially if you’re new to making mouth sounds, or as Wes Carroll puts it, mouthdrumming.

One of the problems facing new vocal percussionists (or beatboxers, whichever moniker you prefer) is building up your repertoire of sounds so that when you need to make a good snare or bass kick, you don’t have to worry about the mechanics of actually getting the sound out. Although professional beatboxers can dazzle crowds by wickedly spittin’ lickety splickety, I can tell you from experience that you don’t need a wide range of sounds to get a good groove going.

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Nancy Cheng is an English major and pre-med junior at Duke University, where she is also a member of the group Out of the Blue. She enjoys shower-singing, hemiolas, and funk. Nancy writes Members Only once a month for The A Cappella Blog.

I’m in a group called Out of the Blue at Duke University. We have won CARAs, most recently in 2008, for Best Album (RED), Best Song (”Magic Tree”), and Best Soloist (Sharon Obialo), so it’s obvious we tend to take recording pretty seriously.

Last year we picked both “Nude” by Radiohead and “Ain’t Nothing Wrong with That” by Robert Randolph for our next CD. Coincidentally, a little birdy told me that UNC’s Clef Hangers (also multiple CARA winners) did the exact same thing.

We at Duke prefer to think that UNC sent out a spy down Tobacco Road to steal our awesome ideas for CD songs, but I suppose it’s possible it was just luck. Our groups wouldn’t be in the same categories for CARAs, if that ever came up, since we’re an all-female group and the Clef Hangers are all male. At the same time, however, you don’t really want to pick songs you think may be very popular on a cappella CDs across the country.

CD song selection requires a certain amount of cognizance concerning what’s hot in music now so that people will buy the CD based on what they know, what will sound just as good or better in an a cappella version, and what you can offer your prospective audience that no other group can. This includes the song choices, amongst other things like kick ass soloists or gorgeous arrangements. If you can rock a somewhat popular song (say, by Muse or Keane) then it would probably be a good pick for the CD. Unknown songs that are fun to sing and offer new things to the a cappella genre should be considered. Be wary, though – those effects you may want on your track that are on the original song may be costly to mix.

Putting popular songs on your CD is a good way to attract listeners outside of your normal audience, but keep in mind that by doing do, you definitely won’t be pushing the envelope when it comes to a cappella, since those songs have been and will be covered many times over. If you’re only making a CD as a keepsake of your college a cappella years, then it’d be fine to pick any songs you like to put on your CD. It’ll be for you, after all.

That being said, don’t be afraid to pick songs for your live set that are popular. For guy groups, classics by the Beach Boys or Boyz II Men are sure to please a crowd, and girls can’t go wrong singing oldies like “Love Will Keep Us Together,” something by the Pointer Sisters, or even The Supremes, if you can pull that off. Mixed groups–take your pick.

The wide appeal of a cappella is that people can hear their favorite songs in a voices only version, and they’re more likely to enjoy your performance if they can recognize songs and bob their head along. My group personally has a little trouble picking mainstream songs—partly because a lot of them will have boring backgrounds or because we worry people will already be sick of listening to them on the radio once we learn how to sing them. But, like many other groups, we have to learn how to strike a balance between popular songs and songs we would put on a CD.

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Nancy Cheng is an English major and pre-med junior at Duke University, where she is also a member of the group Out of the Blue. She enjoys shower-singing, hemiolas, and funk. Nancy writes Members Only once a month for The A Cappella Blog.

As a member of an a cappella group at Duke University, I am no stranger to the possible troubles student-run groups can tangle with. From setting up concerts to learning music and CD sales to coordinating the group, the group has to learn how to take charge of things and take care of itself.

Here’s a quick overview of roles, both official and unofficial, I think are absolutely vital to maintaining and promoting your group on and off campus.

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