Eric Talley is an alumnus of Appalachian State University Lost in Sound, and is currently an a cappella recording producer. Talley writes The Recording Rant on a recurring basis for The A Cappella Blog.

I’m going to take a small hiatus from recording talk and discuss something that is an issue for more groups than they might care to admit. Not everybody sells out eight shows a semester and has fans begging for more at the end. It just isn’t in the cards for younger groups still developing a reputation and finding their sound. These groups are hoping to fill just half of the seats and pray that no technical disasters take place and cause them to lose the four groupies that they barely hold onto. A bigger challenge faces these groups: the challenge to simply Keep It Together.

Are you the leader of one of these groups? You know who you are. You deal with extensive group turnover, people losing interest, lack of motivation, and competition with more popular groups and events around campus. Every time you get a decent show-stopping soloist, they find a reason to not stick it out or find their place in another group. Those in your group that do stay get frustrated by the lack of payoff for the multiple practices every week. Your shows are mediocre and thus the talent entering your group is subpar as well. These groups have a small success rate, and many times they hang it up to end the misery. Here are some other options to save your group and turn yourselves into one of the main events on campus.

1) Group bonding time. My old group’s leader after I left used to set mandatory weekend hangout time. You can understand how this wouldn’t work out with fifteen college kids. They rebelled. BUT, this isn’t to say that the group shouldn’t spend time together outside of practice and concerts. If half of you are hanging out, the others will follow in time. A group of friends has a better connection on stage than a group of singers who hardly know each other. Comfort is big the next time you request that they do some kind of choreography.

2) Highlight the strengths of ALL of the group members. I saw a group a few years ago who had a smaller guy that just wasn’t that great of a singer. Sad, but true. What did they do? They incorporated him into a song using body percussion, which was a crowd pleaser seeing as he was strangely good at it. Not everybody is a great soloist, but if they are in the group they have something to offer, so make use of it. This way, your good soloists don’t feel like they are carrying the group on their back. It can be a heavy burden.

3) ADVERTISE. This cannot be stressed enough to college groups. Get flyers up, talk to your local college radio station, college webmaster, etc. Even better, the week before the show, get outside and sing. For free? YES! Put together three songs and stand where there is the most traffic around campus during the day, and sing the hell out of them. (Side note, avoid slower songs, they tend to grab fewer people on the move.) People will stop, people will listen, and when you stop, people will be disappointed. This is your chance to plug your upcoming show. I promise that your attendance numbers will climb.

4) Make your concerts shows. No, I don’t mean skits between every song, unless that works for you. I mean hire somebody to run sound who knows what they are doing, because a cappella is a different animal altogether and there have been way too many shows ruined by a bad sound engineer who doesn’t understand the genre. Come up with a unique dress code. All of you are wearing ties? Unless you are (insert Clefs, Bubs, etc. here), then it will bore people. It is a tired concept. Lose the ties and go more relaxed. You will feel more comfortable on stage and over time, the crowd will feel more comfortable as well.
There are plenty of us out there who are doing a cappella professionally and hiring a consultant to fix a few issues is always a good idea. You get an unbiased view from somebody who has been around the block. Can’t afford it? Just ask for some help. You might be surprised how many of us would just shoot emails back and forth with you.

In the end, hanging it up is an option that some can’t ignore. Sometimes it is inevitable, but always make it a last resort. Try these tips first, and you will see a turnaround quickly.

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It is not too late to get tickets for The ACB’s ICCA Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinal this weekend. Get all the information here!

Eric Talley is an alumnus of The Appalachian State University Lost in Sound, and is currently an a cappella recording producer. Talley writes The Recording Rant on a recurring basis for The A Cappella Blog.

Another year has passed, and another round of excellent albums have released. It cannot be stated enough that the quality of a cappella music continues to get better and better. We witnessed some truly stellar albums in 2009, and without mentioning names, here are a few things that we can learn from what we have heard:

1) Song originality is HUGE! How many versions of “Apologize” have we heard now? I lost count a while back, but it is far too many. In working with groups now, I stress finding songs that have not been released by five other groups in the last six months, as well songs that showcase their talents. Want to record a Coldplay song? Great idea! Do us all a favor….don’t sing Viva La Vida or The Scientist, because we have been there and done that. If you insist, make it your own and don’t cover the original exactly as we hear it.

2) Your soloist is still the biggest part of the song. Arrangements are blowing me away time and time again with creativity and simple WOW factor, but at the end of the day, your soloist better be able to keep up. I have heard far too many a cappella songs ruined by a mediocre, or just bad, soloist. Your guys group may not be able to sing a Stevie Wonder song. Play to your strengths, no matter how great your arsenal may be. The last thing any of us want to hear is one of our favorite songs murdered by somebody unfit to sing the solo. With that being said….

3) Push the envelope. Most of us read RARB on a regular basis. Great production and simply background chords aren’t cutting it anymore. You have to have the entire package to be considered a top-tier group. This is not to say that I want to see fifty Bubs albums released with different group titles this year, nor do I want every coed group in the nation copying OTB syllables. Just do something different, because do’s and aah’s aren’t selling too many albums these days. Use the top groups to inspire, but there is more than enough potential in the a cappella world to go around.

4) Finally, keep singing! Your album got panned in a review? Only sold half of your copies that you ordered? Had a bad experience with a producer? Persevere. The world wants to hear the best of what you have to offer, and declining to produce an album is the perfect way to NOT give it to them.

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Eric Talley is an alumnus of The Appalachian State University Lost in Sound, and is currently an a cappella recording producer. Talley writes The Recording Rant on selected Wednesdays for The A Cappella Blog.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, this is not a repost from December. My Christmas is the end of the college semester, when so many groups decide to display their hard work and money spent by releasing their albums. Months and months have been spent finding new, creative ways to reinvent songs that have usually been recorded before, but these groups have unique takes on these songs that make them worth listening to; or so we hope. Isn’t that why you buy an album? We hope that what we find inside that professionally designed cover is a new experience of songs that we might have heard before, or a song that is so well-done that we get on iTunes to grab the real thing. We wait patiently for the CD release concerts, willing to pay what we do knowing that our interest will be spiked and once again we will find new inspiration in this genre that we have invested so much in. Much like Christmas, though, there are gifts every once in awhile, like the two-sizes-too-big sweaters from a crazy aunt, that you were hoping would for once be something that you actually wanted. Every year you open that box and find the same thing. In a cappella, that is too often the case.

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Eric Talley is an alumnus of The Appalachian State University Lost in Sound, and is currently an a cappella recording producer. Talley writes The Recording Rant on selected Wednesdays for The A Cappella Blog.

I have sat back for the past week or so and simply watched as the a cappella “community” has not so quietly entered into a debate about the ICCA finals. I know that my articles are supposed to comment on recording aspects, but for the sake of a topic that NEEDS to be discussed, let us call this post “Can’t We All Just Get Along?”

I think we can all agree whole-heartedly that there were good and bad things about MTV taking part in the finals. That much has been made clear by anybody and everybody associated with the competition or the genre in general. Publicity is good, and twisting words and actions to please an audience is bad. Make the sacrifices or don’t. That is left up to Varsity Vocals, who haven’t steered us wrong yet, so can we have a little faith?

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Eric Talley is an alumnus of The Appalachian State University Lost in Sound, and is currently an a cappella recording producer. Talley writes The Recording Rant on selected Wednesdays for The A Cappella Blog.

As a producer, I find myself gravitating towards reviews on albums more and more these days, and less concerned with performance reviews and tips. Maybe it has something to do with my lack of performance experience after leaving my college group. It could be the days on end that I have spent in front of a screen editing and mixing that have soured my taste in unfiltered a cappella. No matter the reason, I find more and more of a trend in album reviews, and an even stronger trend in those outside of the “inner circle” that might not agree with how an album is given its mark. I use the words inner circle because as people leave collegiate groups, more often than not they eventually move on to other aspects of life. This inner circle involves the people that have made themselves a landmark in the industry, or are at least making an attempt to do so, by not moving on, but finding new ways to add to the genre. As many things in life go, seniority and experience leads to advantages, such as being the one that RARB sends an album to for a review. The forum on that site is where my point comes in.

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