We’ve all heard it. That one (or many) a cappella group that
isn’t quite together. They clearly
haven’t practiced enough. Their arrangements are not up to par with some of
your favorite a cappella groups. They let gimmicks, choreography, and
showmanship get in the way of the music. They are all sick. They just put on a
bad show. Whatever the reason, everyone of us a cappella fans have walked out
of a show with the desire to shove an ice pick into our ear canal.
Okay, I’m being graphic. But let’s face it. If every a
cappella group was as good as all the others, ICCA wouldn’t exist. BOCA would
be a 2,000 track compilation and cost hundreds of dollars. We all have different
opinions, and we all want our criticisms to be heard. There are standards that
each of us must face and those standards differ depending on who is the person
that we are trying to entertain or impress.
There are clearly better groups than others. I am in no
position to say which is which. My favorite a cappella group, The Real Group,
is what I consider the platinum standard of a cappella, but many would argue
that their style of a cappella does not fit with the contemporary style,
represented by Rockapella or Pentatonix, that many consider to be mainstream a
cappella. My point is, we all have different opinions of who is greater than
others. But I ask this philosophical question and I want you to consider the
opposing points of view:
Is there such thing as “bad” a cappella?
In short, no. In a longer answer, noooooooooooooooooo.
The next time you cringe at a missed high note, roll your
eyes at a “hackneyed” arrangement, or start comparing one group you saw to the
next, I ask you to consider the following factors before you officially call
them a “bad” group:
1) Singing a cappella
is a wholly remarkable and difficult thing to do. Singing without the
support of tuned instruments to help you stay in key is difficult enough. Add
in the factor that you alone have to hear where every pitch fits in the chord
AND you have to do that while everyone is singing something different, is
nothing short of remarkable.
2) A cappella groups
change lives. Maybe the group you see on stage just got through a difficult
period of their lives. Maybe the group has worked their butts off to get as far
as they have come now. Maybe the group doesn’t care if they are the greatest
group in the world, so long as they enjoy rehearsal time with each other. Maybe the soloist is singing by
him/herself for the first time in her entire life. What if the person everyone
was “cringing at” was you?
3) Collegiate and
high school groups change rosters every year. Many of us forget this fact.
Only professional or semi-professional groups stay together for years, building
their overall group blend. But collegiate and high school groups, who I believe
make up the majority of what we consider a cappella music to be, change rosters
every year. In addition to everything a group has to worry about, adding new
members who instantly have to learn a stack of music and blend with a group
that’s been together far longer is just added pressure.
4) The performance is
not everything.
As an educator, I consider a successful choir to have
progressed over a period of time, not a choir who robotically learns music for
the purposes of being the best. I would rather choose to teach inexperienced
singers with a passion for learning than a choir full of drones. If you were
going to brand an a cappella group as “bad,” you are declaring that everything
they have done from this point on is not musical, un-educational, and basically
a waste of time.
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