Hi all. I'm new here, but I'm looking for some advice.

I'm a MIddle School Choir director. I'm thinking of trying some contemporary a cappella arrangements with my Middle School Choir. This would serve as a kind of reward system: They do all their concert music, and they get to work on a Contemporary A Cappella arrangement of one of their favorite songs from today.

I also thought of trying some VP with them as a way to teach rhythm.

What do you think? and do any arrangers out there have any tips about how to approach a group arrangement like this?

Rb4uris,

At the risk of sounding cliche, I suggest the Deke Sharon series that sells so well at a-cappella.com. The first two volumes especially have very acheivable charts that have learning tracks.

I have been doing acappella with my 8th graders for the past 2 years, and have found that they do well with those charts. Also, the learning tracks help me because I don't have much time with them (it is a small pull-out group).

Best of luck!

Brody

Depending on how much experience your students have in close part-singing, I would suggest against using the CASA songbooks. Most of the songbooks have the top three parts singing in close proximity to each other, which is very difficult for MS voices to find the correct harmony note (they all sound the same to them).

I would suggest using arrangements (and the CASA books do have a few that fit) where the parts are more polyphonic. This lets them identify a melody to sing rather than struggle with what part of the triad they're not singing correctly.

I've done a 3-part arrangement of "Superman" by Five For Fighting that worked very well with MS voices. Also have used "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton to similar effect.

Good luck!

The current a cappella boom was sparked by the song "Hitori" (Alone), which was released in March 2001 by a Japanese all-male quintet called the Gospellers, whose members are all graduates of Waseda University. It was their first hit song in the seven years since their professional debut, and the CD single sold more than 600,000 copies in the first six months after going on sale.

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Nikimathew
Viral Marketing

I guess at the end of the day - the answer is... whatever works for your kids. I have found that the CASA books work fine for us because the learning cd helps a lot. We have rehearsals for 30 minutes a week and the kids are required to learn their notes via the learning cd before rehearsal. With that schedule, we learned 5 songs over the course of the year with no headaches, sang a few shows. I had 3 on a part for a total of 12. Our set list was

Stand By Me
My Girl
Under the Boardwalk
Why Do Fools Fall In Love
Up on the Roof

I specifically like acappella for the fact that it gets the kids to harmonize, so I'm looking for chords. If you have some good, independent kids, don't be scared to try these.

Brody