Please note that the ICCA Drinking Game is intended for entertainment purposes only. We do not encourage or condone irresponsible drinking or any consumption of alcohol that violates local laws or college/host facility policies. If you’re going to play this game, we recommend you use soft drinks.

TAKE A DRINK WHENEVER YOU HEAR:
-a group sing the syllable “jigga.”
-you hear a vocal percussionist use the sound “boom-chicka,” “doom-chicka” or some variant thereof.
-a dude sings in a falsetto.
-a group counts off before starting a song.

TAKE A DRINK WHENEVER YOU SEE:
-an air guitar.
-a group member conduct on stage.
-a vocal percussionist move more than three feet from the nearest group member.
-a soloist leave her/his feet.
-a pelvic thrust.
-more than two members of a group beginning bobbing their knees in synch.

FINISH YOUR DRINK WHENEVER:
-a group tries to get the crowd clapping in unison.
-a group covers a song originally performed by Coldplay.
-a group covers a song originally performed by Imogen Heap.

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The A Cappella Blog will return to regular posting on January 4, 2010. The 2010 season will include a number of new features that are currently in the works. In the meantime, we share these bits of news:

-Although it’s too late to make the shows, there was a bit of an a cappella stand-off on Saturday night at George Washington University. In this article from The Hatchet each group made its case for why theirs was the show to watch.

-The Cleveland Banner had an interesting article about The Sing-Off. The piece centered on The Voices of Lee, but also indicated some hitherto unconfirmed structural pieces of the show, including that one of the eight groups will be eliminated during each episode of the show, before viewers vote for the show’s winner live during the finale on December 21. You can read the full article here.

-An ACB reader submitted a link to this YouTube channel featuring a fun collection of a cappella multi-track recordings.

Dave Grossman is a member of Ithaca College’s Ithacappella. Please note that the writing below is in no way representative of the views of Ithaca College or Ithacappella.

If you’re reading this article, the following three points are likely true:

-You sing a cappella
-You’ve seen and heard other a cappella besides your own group
-You care enough about your group to do some research for them.

Those things assumed, you’ve probably seen a lot of these a cappella pet peeves of mine, and you may have even been perpetrators of some of them. Regardless, the following is a list of songs and procedures that are done either all too often, or, when done occasionally, still don’t make any sense.

Read the rest

Dave Grossman, a member of Ithaca College’s Ithacappella thoroughly documented his experience performing in the ICCA Finals throug ha series of notes. Here is a compilation of Dave’s unique observations from the Finals experience.

Please note that the writing below is in no way representative of the views of Ithaca College or Ithacappella.

Read the rest

Michael Marcus is an award-winning arranger and an alumnus/co-founder of Columbia University Nonsequitur. He is also featured in an upcoming documentary film about collegiate a cappella, Sounds Good to Me. Michael lives in New Haven with his wife Inna and dog Zoe.

Raise your hand if this has happened to you:

Your group auditions for the ICCA and gets in. It’s your first time competing, so you’re all incredibly excited. You pick your three best songs and rehearse them until you can sing them in your sleep. You arrive at the host school and sing your hearts out. You stand on stage with the other quarterfinalists as the winners are announced - but you haven’t placed, let alone advanced to the semi-finals. In your disappointment, you decide as a group that you won’t even bother auditioning next year.

This happened to me six years ago, when I competed with Columbia Nonsequitur in the quarterfinal at the University of Delaware. We didn’t leave completely empty-handed; our rendition of India.Arie’s “Ready for Love” garnered us a Best Soloist award. But we didn’t place. The group was devastated.

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