What I think is fascinating is how the lyrical vocal line is accentuated by the latin rhythms and the light backups. Oh yeah, the faux-trumpet break is pretty sweet and serves as the homerun gimmick, but the reason why Nota won was not because of nailing gimmick after gimmick (which they did, btw), but the musical choices that set up those homeruns. Each one of their performances features some ethnic flavor that makes each one stand out, but the underlying musicality is why they walked off as champs.

To use a cake metaphor…they had really good cake. Yeah, the frosting and decorations made Nota distinctive and gave them that necessary push to top the Bubs and Voices of Lee, but they developed something good and did it right, then added the buttercream to eke out the top slot.

Listen closely to the arrangement and see how the ensemble works: you can easily hear the soloist, the backup hits are light, there is smart use of silence and noise, and the percussion sets up a groove and establishes a mood without overshadowing the solo. The interplay between the singers links the musical phrases (watch how one hits the splash cymbals on the VP) and the choreography has direction: “We are here. We are now moving here. We are spreading out…to do something wicked cool. We come back together.” The choreography underlines the music, rather than the other way around.

A take-away from their arrangement is the use of sustained bass notes. When the bass activates and starts jumping around, there’s a rise in the energy level, but when it’s sustained it sets up a smooth groove. Also, the root of the chord provides a strong tension with the vocal line, which sits on the dissonant 4th and 2nd scale degree a lot. Milking that tension makes it delicious when it resolves…down (b’dum, crash).

And yeah, the trumpet break is pretty ballers too.

A beautiful wartime doll.

Oh, you’re such a beautiful doll!  This 1911 hit was a wartime favorite that shows how Barbershop harmony, ragtime, and popular music overlapped.

This is sung by Bill Murray and The American Quartet in 1912.  Fantastic stuff here, very vintage.  It’s hard to imagine this being the height of popular music, but here you have it.

Now, for a more modern extension by some very talented ladies:

While we’re listening, you SSAA arrangers out there should take note of the general low tessitura of everything here, and the overwhelming strength of the lower voices — this is such an exercise in the beauty of chest… especially in the masterful placement of the sustained tonic note in the tag.  For these ladies, a chest-heavy belt works much better than a high soprano might.  Bravo!

Not as easy as A and B

While it’s well and good to know what your group is about, who your target audience is, where you want to take the group, and if your 2nd soprano is single, that doesn’t actually pick your songs. This article is geared towards the practicality of picking songs, and several methods with their pros and cons. Naturally, you can adapt these archetypes to suit the ensemble; you’re the one making the sauce.

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“Doof, tepuh kss”

“Pfft dubba dubba, kcha”

It’s a fallacy that drums noises are reserved to just drums, just as vocal percussion is limited to the vocal percussionist. If you can speak, you can do VP, and if you’re writing arrangements for people who can speak…well, everyone can be a drum sometime or other! All it takes is a little ingenuity and riskiness to write some drum parts for your whole ensemble, as well as some singers who are willing to have some fun.

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Or just watch some…

Try to imitate drums in heavy metal songs. Let out your secret love for Linkin’ Park and Metallica, and just give your mouth a go. Put on some Emperor and see what noises you can make in an acoustically delicious shower. Let people stare while you rock out to System of a Down and make goofy mouth noises.

Also, heavy metal is underappreciated by a cappella dorks, as is punk rock. Builds character.

“Punk rock isn’t dead: it’s only comatose.”

Man, I love Paul Gilbert. Stupid-fast metal guitar always appeals to that pick wielding side of me, and he has such a sense of humor about it. I mean, look at those pants! That guy has to have a sense of humor about something.

Now watch this and just try to tell yourself that the intended effect is not exactly the same in both of these videos. The sound is different, the arena is different (har!), but the intended effect remains the same. You’ll have to turn this up a bit:

I love that while the bepantsed one whips his crowd into a frothy frenzy, the similarly brilliant technical fireworks of the Markov interpretation result in naught but a hearty “Bravo!” at the end.

If Paganini were alive today, he would probably play through three Metal Zone pedals cranked up to 11.5. Aside: Paganini was actually a guitarist as well, and composed many pieces for the instrument.

Also plays songs that people know, like Sweet Home Alabama.

Song selection is tricky business. It might not make or break your group, and each individual song choice might not matter that much, but a group’s audience and reputation are largely determined by the catalog of music they present. So before you decide on your group’s lineup for the year, or the semester, mull over your priorities.

Who are you singing for?

As a case study, when I was in my second year with the UNC Loreleis, we won a great battle: Major Sponsorship. The UNC General Alumni Association decided to sponsor us, giving us a lump sum of money every year, full access to their printer, free labor of their webmaster, and rehearsal space. In exchange, we would sing at many GAA-held events for “free.” This meant singing for a lot of old people with old memories and deep pockets. It was in our interests to make them smile, so I tried to include a couple songs in the set list that they were feasibly familiar with, as well as a few newer songs that would at least make them smile.

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The pants may be the secret.

If you don’t already know, the first track on Van Halen’s first album features a thrilling vocal performance by lead singer David Lee Roth. In fact, the first sound you hear from David Lee Roth in the entire Van Halen catalog is his opening multi-tonal wailing in “Runnin’ With the Devil.”

Through the good fortune of the Internet, now you can have the isolated lead vocal track from this song. It is really worth a listen even if you’re not familiar with the song itself. David Lee Roth’s voice is, quite simply, courageously inspiring.

Moreover, an individual named Tyser has created a soundboard out of this vocal track. Now you can have this vocal performance at the push of a button!

The arrangement is pretty excellent — it was recorded sometime around 1970, and so was probably seen as a string of “covers” of Stevie Wonder’s fantastic up-tempo version.. in fact, he uses Stevie’s chromatically falling lick at 0:51, although he lays much futher back.  Sammy Davis Jr. is certainly of an older era of performers who never wrote their own material, back in the days of the Great American Song.  The horns at the end repeating that lick bring this whole project together as a funktastic groove that somehow just oozes “cool” at the seams.  This is a good study in horn arrangement of the era — it’s very typical, but in a good way.

Sammy Davis’s skinny self in that jumpsuit is such a ridiculous sight, really, but not one that’s particularly sad.  I think of it more as an apogee of achievement; it’s the pinnacle of… something.  I’m not sure quite what, but it’s certainly very far in whatever direction it is.  Perhaps the direction is “Tom Jones,” which explains the alarming hip gyration.  But regardless, props to the James Brown scream in there.  I suspect that Sammy Davis Junior’s time doing this is just evidence of his success as an entertainer.  He kept relevant no matter what; much like the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Bonus: Soul Girls!  Watch 1:48 to 1:58 on the left side of the screen — that gal does the clap and squat.  I love the clap and squat!

Bonus 2: Sammy doing it again in 1989, after strutting onstage to the Hawaii Five-0 Theme Song; the cigarette is gone and the hip gyrations remain.  I would say that the soulscream and the performance is FAR more triumphant here, and if the 1970 version made me smile in vague irony, this one from 20 years later makes me smile with joy!

Young Michael had some moves; looking over his shoulder out at a large empty auditorium is very familiar; all of them are surely imagining what the place might look like when it’s full.  Hearing the false starts and the variations of the playing gies the impression that this music as performed live was much more organic and active (and prone to error) than the stadium mega-concerts that are lip-synced today.  It makes me want to bust out a Jackson Five recording or two!