We welcome you to weigh in on the topic at hand by posting a comment. We also welcome readers to offer up their own statements for our writers to consider, Measure for Measure.

A lot of the appeal of collegiate a cappella comes from contemporary music choices, and entertaining performance choices, in contrast to more traditional performances from more traditional performance ensembles. With this in mind, a collegiate a cappella show should push boundaries. Skits, multimedia clips, costumes, cameo appearances—bring them all on! The more special attractions at a show, the better.

True: One of the coolest parts of attending a collegiate a cappella show is that you never know what you’re going to see. I’ve seen comedic videos. I’ve seen a member of a group come out dressed like a banana. I’ve stomp routines, alumni guests, school mascots joining in the fun. Part of what makes these shows great is just how unpredictable they are, and the opportunity they afford truly creative groups to shine.

False: There can be fun extracurriculars in an a cappella show, but it’s only worthwhile if it doesn’t come at the expense of the musical performance. A show should be entertaining for a full audience—not a few select friends of a group who will get the inside jokes. Videos and skits should complement a show, but they shouldn’t be what the spectators are talking about afterward. The core of a great a cappella show rests with the music, and the level of performance. A few special attractions are OK, but they’re best limited to a rational level.

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Want to write for The A Cappella Blog? Want to have your photos posted on the site? Want to join The ACB team in another capacity? You’re in luck because we are looking for new staff! Go to our contact page and write to us about what you would like to do.

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3. Measure for Measure: Blake Lewis and the a cappella world

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2. Newsline: Sing-Off, an a cappella TV show on NBC

In a departure from our normal content, we will be guiding you through this season of American Idol from The A Cappella Blog’s perspective. We’re going to do this through the 3 Gs format.

Great/Good: Represents my thoughts on the best performance(s) of the night—these are the star-makers, the tearjerkers, the ones we’re all going to remember.

Gone: Represents my thoughts on the contestant(s) who I think is most likely to be going home (not necessarily the one I think should be going home).

Give it a second look: Represents the act(s) you might not remember, or that we might not have expected much from, but which delivered just the same, and deserve another listen.

Here are my thoughts from tonight’s episode:

GOOD

Crystal Bowersox gives us one reason she should stay here: I was skeptical of Crystal’s act in the early-going, but week in and week out she’s turning in the most consistently strong performances of anyone on Idol. Mellow as it may have been, this performance was more comfortable, confident, and professional than any act, male or female this week.

Andrew Garcia rubs things the right way: Say what you will about this being re-hash of Andrew’s “Straight Up” style from before. It was a nice twist on an established song and one of the best sounding performances this week.

Todrick Hall finally just sings: I’ve been a big critic of Todrick’s performances up to this point. This week, he took a back to basics approach, and demonstrated his actual singing ability. The result? Far and away his best performance since Hollywood, and one of the strongest male showings for the week.

GONE

This is the end of Lacey Brown’s story: I’m not sure how Lacey has survived this long. Honestly, this was probably her best performance to date, but I don’t think it was good enough to pull her into any sort of contention.

Aaron Kelly isn’t going to be there for long: OK, I get that Aaron is the teen wunderkind of the year. He’s got a very good voice, but he just hasn’t arrived as a performer just yet. Last week’s performance was weak; this week’s was better, but just not competitive with the field.

GIVE IT A SECOND LOOK

Alex Lambert tries to work his way out of trouble: I have been hard on Alex over the last couple weeks. It’s never been because I didn’t like his voice, but I thought his song selections were hit and miss, and that he always looked painfully awkward on stage. The judges are right, though—he has improved with every performance. He looked less awkward this time around, and picked the perfect song to complement his voice in Ray LaMontagne’s “Trouble.” Nice showing.

Related posts:

1. The 3 Gs of American Idol: Week 1, Part 1
2. The 3 Gs of American Idol: Week 1, Part 2
3. The 3 Gs of American Idol: Week 2, Part 1

This time, we share the best opening song to an ICCA set.

Over the years, Ithacappella has developed into one of the east coast’s top a cappella acts, and a perennial threat in the ICCAs. They have had plenty of memorable performances in competition, but no better opening selection than their 2008 rendition of “Get Ready” by The Temptations.

“Get Ready” is just such a smart opener. It’s upbeat and fun. It’s lyrically applicable, warning the audience and competition that they should get ready, because the group is on its way and packing heat. Furthermore, it’s the kind of song that will appeal to a wide audience, and mostly likely leave the judges warm. It’s old enough to be familiar to the more aged onlookers, but fresh enough in folks’ memories from car commercials and whatnot that you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t know it—though they might not have thought of the song in years (better yet!).

In addition to being a good song selection, the guys executed the heck out of it. There was plenty of movement, with choreography that may have grown repetitive, but was nonetheless fun and engaging. The soloist was dynamic. The group was on. This isn’t the sort of song that really wows you with dynamics, or knocks your socks off with the complex arrangement, but it doesn’t have to be, and it’s the groups way of acknowledging that it will be accessible and draw everyone in from the start before moving on to more holistically impressive things. Great opener.

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Trying to find the next ICCA show in your area? Check out our Events page!

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A call to arms

It all started when the Varsity Vocals organization put out the call on its website, seeking a host for a Mid-Atlantic quarterfinal. It didn’t take long for ACB Production Manager Mike Scalise to get on the phone with Content Manager Mike Chin with an idea.

As an alum and current employee of Nazareth College, Scalise had a number of connections at the school, not the least of which was a tie to Naz’s only all-female a cappella group Call4BackUp. Working with Nazareth colleagues Jamie Fazio and Sara Rusick, Scalise and Call4BackUp secured a time and venue, and, working with ICCA Director of College A Cappella Programming Lindsay Howerton sured up the details for the event.

A retreat

In late December, The A Cappella Blog had its first organizational retreat. While there was plenty of preparation for the 2010 publication season, and new features like the group directory and ICCA bracket contest, without fail, the conversation returned to the ACB ICCA show. Preparation included everything from meeting with the sound guy (S.O.L. Productions offered a bargain rate, and all the experience and wisdom that comes from past work with Rockappella and number of collegiate groups); organizing a publicity campaign through Facebook, Craigslist, emails, flyers and more; developing a PowerPoint presentation to keep the audience entertained before the show began; recruiting volunteers; and designing t-shirts for the event staff.

A guest act

A couple weeks before the show, it came to The ACB’s attention that The Sing-Off champions, NOTA would be performing a fundraiser in Rochester, NY the day after the ICCA show. Within minutes, Chin was on the phone with the fundraiser’s organizers. Later that day, he began a series of communications with NOTA’s booking agent. It was time to talk dollars and cents before long, which led to Scalise scouring Nazareth College for funding. After much ado, the money available and the scheduling just didn’t quite line-up. As great as the guest act may have been, The ACB moved on undeterred, preparing for the show.

The day of the show

Scalise and Chin spent the morning of the show picking up cases of water for groups, organizing their clipboards, going over their emcee notes, and generally preparing for the day ahead. And then, the email came in. ICCA Producer David Rabizadeh had arrived in Rochester, but had learned that morning that one of the evening’s judges would not be able to make it through the winter snow to Nazareth College that night.

Fortunately, ACB contributor and University of Rochester Vocal Point alumna Gen Chawluk was on hand to volunteer for the day and serve as a timekeeper that night. After some back and forth, a phone interview, and a little shuffling, Chawluk had the opportunity to adjudicate her first ICCA show, offering her considerable knowledge to the event—but also leaving the team down one volunteer, as she was thenceforth sequestered to avoid contact with the competitors.

Our volunteer team was more than up to the task, though. Between Call4BackUp and their friends, the ultimate go-getter Mike Peek, photographer extraordinaire Will Browar, ticket manager Sara Rusick and others, the afternoon proceeded without a hitch, leading up to an evening of superb a cappella.

Competition time

Penn State None of the Above opened the competition with “Absolutely (Story of a Girl)” originally by Nine Days. It was a really fun performance, featuring a ton of choreography, to get the evening off to a great start.

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Speaking of choreography, no one was about to show up Lehigh University’s all-male A Whole Step Up. The guys closed their set with “Afternoon Delight,” complete with poses and lifts for a performance that ultimately earned them outstanding choreography honors for the night.

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The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rusty Pipes kicked the competition t into high gear with a really polished performance. Frankly, it was really surprising to see the group go home sans any awards or placement. Their rendition of “Feelin’ Good” was particularly strong.

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SUNY Potsdam A Sharp Arrangement turned in an entertaining set themselves, capped off with a Spice Girls medley that took everyone back in time a dozen or so years.

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Continuing the all-female trend were The Syracuse University Mandarins. The girls turned in, quite arguably, the most musically sound set of the night, which they kicked off with Imogen Heap’s “Just For Now.”

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After intermission, it was time for University of Rochester After Hours–one of the nicest groups that came to Naz that day, and a group Chin was especially excited to present to the crowd, as they had commissioned him to rap their intro. The group went on to perform a solid set, highlighted by a really pretty rendering of Ingrid Michaelson’s “The Chain” as the middle song.

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Carnegie Mellon University Counterpoint came on next. The truest highlight of their set came when soloist Julia Gebhardt made “Halo” her own in a performance that ultimately earned her outstanding soloist honors for the evening.

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No stars would shine brighter than Rutgers University’s Casual Harmony, opening with Counting Crows’ “American Girls,” before kicking their set into high gear with “Eleanor Rigby” and wrapping up strong on “Butterfly.” The guys weren’t as choreographed as they had been in recent years, but still brought their usual blend of energy, power and impeccable sound to the stage.

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It would be the SUNY Potsdam Pitches who closed out the competition. It was another memorable set, highlighted by an off-beat finish with the wildly staged “Smooth Criminal,” by the end of which the majority of the group lay prone on the floor—having been hit by, having been struck by—well, you know the rest.

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Casual Harmony came out on top, and will be joined by runners up After Hours for the Mid-Atlantic semifinals at Rutgers next month. The Rutgers guys closed out the night with an encore performance of Ray LaMontagne’s “You Are The Best Thing.”

The next day…
Though The ACB could not bring NOTA to Nazareth, the crew still got to celebrate a successful show over brunch the next day, and meet the Sing-Off stars.

You can check videos from the show on our Youtube page, and check out many more photos through our Facebook fan page.

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The ACB would like to once again thank everyone who made this event possible, including the staff at Varsity Vocals, our volunteers, the competitors and the audience. Here’s hoping we can do it all again in the future!

Related posts:

1. ACB Event Review: ICCA Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinal at Penn State
2. ACB Event Review: ICCA Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinal at Rutgers University
3. ACB Event Review: ICCA Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinal at Johns Hopkins University

We welcome clip suggestions from anyone who would like to submit them.

This week, we present Oxford University Out of the Blue performing Jimi Hendrix’s “Crosstown Traffic.”

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You can support music in our schools through the VH1 Save The Music Foundation by purchasing a wristband from our site. Go to our Donate to Save the Music page for more information!

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The A Cappella Blog: What is the audition process like for Take Note?

Kim Clark (KC): This is Take Note Acapella’s third year in existence so we’ve only had a few auditions up to date. At auditions, we have students fill out a history form explaining previous singing and/or music experience. We also make them answer a goofy question, normally along the lines of, “If you could be a cartoon character, who would you be?” or, “Did you cry at the end of Titanic?”. We have each auditionee sing a verse and a chorus of a pop/rock song that shows off their range. Next we ask them to sing up and down the scales and harmonize with us. We accept people in based on the spots we need filled and their musical/vocal abilities. A big deciding factor for our officer board is whether or not this auditionee has that special “it” factor we are looking for. We love seeing students that are filled with charisma and positive, upbeat energies!

ACB: How does your group go about deciding which songs to add to its repertoire? Who is responsible for arrangements?

KC: Almost all of our arrangements are purchased from professional a cappella arrangers. Although these can get expensive, we love having songs written custom to our groups needs and strengths. Our group also spends a lot of time thinking ahead, figuring out what songs will be the next big thing. Although we keep in mind not to choose an overplayed song that too many a cappella groups have done. Recently, we’ve been picking a lot of slow tempo, alternative, ballad pieces. Slower songs are fun to work on because it allows us to closely knit-pick harmonies and hone in on each dynamic at an unhurried pace.

ACB: What drew you, personally, to collegiate a cappella in the first place?

KC: I started an an all girls a cappella group in high school. After we learned our first song, I fell in love with the beauty of only voices filling up space; we truly became the instruments. I knew a cappella was a form of music I had to continue and college was the perfect place to do it!

ACB: If you could have any contemporary singer join your group to sing the solo for one song, who would you pick?

KC: Great question! Christina Aguilera singing a solo would be awesome…who wouldn’t want her sultry, pop/rock pipes in front of a group?

ACB: What would you say is the most important element to having a successful collegiate a cappella group?

KC: The most important element is definitely finding your groups identity. Asking questions like, “Who are we?”, “What songs define us?” and identifying each sections strengths and weaknesses is good to know. Group bonding can also make a world of difference! We had a slight problem with our collected identity because we lost many members after our first year. The adjustment post-auditions was difficult. We didn’t find our groove right away, so we worked on togetherness and getting to know one another musically and personally.

ACB: Is there anything else you would like to share with the readers of The A Cappella Blog?

KC: In Spring 2009 we recorded our first CD with Diovoce, produced by Vocal Source, whom we consider to be the best in the a cappella industry…Dave Sperandio is a musical genius! So please check us out! Our CD is will be sold on our website, Itunes and other online retailers soon this fall thanks to A Cappella Records! www.takenoteacapella.com

If you would like to learn more about Take Note, you can visit the group online here.

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Want to write for The A Cappella Blog? Want to have your photos posted on the site? Want to join The ACB team in another capacity? You’re in luck because we are looking for new staff! Go to our contact page and write to us about what you would like to do.

Related posts:

1. ACB Interview: Catholic University Redline
2. ACB Interview: University of Maine Renaissance
3. ACB Interview: The Brown University Jabberwocks

The A Cappella Blog (ACB): One of the featured events of SpringSing is the collegiate competition. How many groups do you expect to participate this year? Who are the judges, and on what basis will they be selecting winners? What is at stake?

Robert Burns, II (RB): At this time, six collegiate groups are expected to participate. Groups will be from James Madison University, Georgia Tech, Florida, State and The University of Georgia. Judges include a representative from each of the professional performing groups as well as at least one judge from the Contemporary A cappella Society. Groups compete for a variety of prizes including a 1st Place trophy and cash prize of $500. There are other trophies and awards for 2nd and 3rd place, as well as certificates for excellence in any number of areas (i.e. best choreography, song Arrangement, etc.).

ACB: What professional groups can attendees expect to see on Friday night?

RB: Attendees can expect an A-list of professional performers in Friday night’s Benefit Concert. Here are just a few: Business as Usual, Duwende, Almost Recess, and Ahmir.

ACB: What can attendees expect from the workshops and masterclasses?

RB: The Saturday workshops and masterclasses are intended to provide professional training on a variety of topics related to a cappella (and the music business in general). Attendees have the opportunity to learn from the pros about nearly any topic of their choice, from garnering publicity for their newly formed a cappella group, to enhancing their on-stage performance skills. SpringSing Weekend will feature more than a dozen workshops and masterclasses, all listed on our website.

ACB: SpringSing is a product of the hard work of Team Burns, an organization that raises money to benefit the American Cancer Society. What can you tell us about this group’s history? Why did the group choose to have an a cappella-centric event as one of its primary fundraisers?

RB: Team Burns was the brainchild of a group of caring individuals in our community who had a personal relationship with our family. Upon the passing of Ted Burns, the group devoted itself to raising money for the ACS. A concert of any other nature had already been done so we thought outside the box. It began as a smaller event but once we started inviting groups to participate it just grew on it’s own and the more people hear about it, the more that want to be involved. It is for a good cause and most people involved have lost a very close family member of friend so each person has their own reason for making it happen. As for why a cappella, we are already involved with the UGA Accidentals so it made sense to involve them.

Of course, we also do traditional things like Relay For Life each year, bake sales and general fundraisers, but this is the largest and most involved of the projects we are involved in.

Our team is very diverse and because of this each person brings something different and wonderful to the collective body. We have about 25 members who all work year-round to make our activities happen with a unique style and Team Burns flare.

ACB: For how long has the SpringSing event been going on? Based on past history what might surprise newcomers to the event?

RB: This will be the second annual “SpringSing: Voices United For a Cure” and what might surprise newcomers is simply the music. Of course we work hard to make this event a cut above the standard shows, as we have selected a state of the art facility to host the show. We have invited the best talent from various parts of the country, and we have done a lot of things to make this event a classy family event. A place where a son can surprise his mother with tickets, or a bunch of guys could decide to go for the night or a couple co-workers can go for fun and then have a bite to eat after. Most importantly, however, it is the music. It is important for someone new to a cappella to realize that there is not just one sound to a cappella music. A cappella can be R&B, country, jazz, barbershop quartet, gospel or a multitude of other genres. We feel it is our job to find something new to bring to our listeners each year so no one will be able to say that the show is the same from year to year. We want people to be excited about the new music they hear each time along with their old standbys.

ACB: Is there anything else you would like for the A Cappella Blog readers to know?

RB: A cappella music is everywhere and not something foreign or unknown. Every time they listen to the National Anthem at a baseball game, they are listening to a cappella music. By coming to SpringSing each year, they are introduced to their favorite songs by extraordinary voices without instruments so the sound is pure and very easy to enjoy. In our shows there is something for everyone and that is on purpose.

You can learn more about SpringSing at the official website here.