I also talk a little about the Contemporary A Cappella Awards, which just released their 2007 nominations – congratulations to all the nominees, and I’m going to see what I can do to get all the original music nominated onto the podcast. In fact, I’d love to be able to do a whole show with the nominated tracks – all you fans, pressure your favorite groups to get their tracks in the CASA A Cappella Originals mp3 library and on this podcast!

As promised, here is the first response to Chad from my first blog (I’m looking forward to many more messages, Chad) (and by the way, you should check out acapodcast.com – great music there). Chad responded to my first blog with this:

“Is this judgment reserved for the pro groups? Might it be easier for college groups, who are (or should be) more focused on academics to take what they know is a popular song and set it down? Or to pick it apart by ear, because they can't commit it to paper for one reason or another? What about the flip side of the coin? Might it not be _harder_ to make a good a cappella arrangement of a non-a cappella song than it is to compose something original?”

Great questions, Chad, and you bring up several issues that could be (and might be depending on when my blood sugar level runs low) discussed at length.

First, I think it applies just as much to college groups as it does to pro groups. College groups are already spending tons of time arranging and rehearsing; writing and learning new stuff isn’t going to take that much longer.

I think the difficulty – for any group – lies in the two most difficult aspects of composing: 1) it’s hard. I’m not trying to give anyone delusions that writing is easy – but it’s not impossible, it just takes practice. 2) it’s personal. Songwriting is a very personal thing, so the failure or rejection of a song is often interpreted as a judgement against the songwriter. This is tough both in the genesis and the execution – it’s emotionally risky to write stuff, so people don’t try – there is no genesis; and when it is written, it’s hard for those close to the writer to discuss it objectively, and if it’s not good enough to actually use, how do you deal with that without hurting someone’s feelings? Related to this is that it’s risky – and who wants to take risks, anyway?

Both of these aspects are why I feel it is so important that we talk about writing original music more – it takes practice, it takes training, it takes thought and creativity and initiative, it takes guts… but it’s so worth it! And the only way to learn how to do it – is by doing it! And the way to motivate people to do it, is to talk about it. And to bribe them with a large stash of choco-pops.

Coincidently, where do you find the largest concentrated group of people who are smart, creative, witty, socially conscious, brave (or ignorant, sometimes it’s the same thing), who are gathering skills for future careers and endeavors, who love music so much that they take hours out of their busy schedule to sing and perform, who learn new applicable skills faster than almost any other demographic? That’s right – college students! If anything, college students should be producing more original art (not talking just a cappella here) and being creative all over the place. Instead, we just march ‘em through letting them regurgitate half-crammed test answers (or song arrangements that their group has been singing for 20 years), teach them how to work a spreadsheet program, and call it an education. That’s definitely a topic that needs to be discussed at length another time.

No creative experience is by nature a waste of time. So what if your major isn’t music, or if you don’t plan on doing music as a career – if you create music, write a song, experiment, improvise, try new stuff, it will improve your brain, improve your life, improve anything you want to do. Learning to write music has taught me stuff about everything – how to deal with rude neighbors, what my core values really are, how to listen (to other kinds of music, and to people), not to mention musical things like how to interpret music, how to perform, etc.

And, who says the original music has to be written by someone in the group? How many friends do you have who walk around with their guitars, or twinkle out a tune on the ivories anytime they find a keyboard? Why not have them write you a song, and then arrange it for a cappella?

Answers to other points you brought up: “Might it be easier for college groups, who are (or should be) more focused on academics to take what they know is a popular song and set it down?”

Might be, but only because of experience – when you or anyone started singing, in college or high school or earlier – it’s wasn’t easy by any means to learn a new song, or take something you heard and reproduce it. You learned how through practice and trial and error. You learn to create original music the same way. Culturally we label people – ‘he’s a painter, I’m not, so I can’t paint’ – why? – ‘because it won’t be as good as his.’ Pooh. If you write a song, you’re a songwriter. It’s not just about producing and performing perfect music – not everyone is going to be Stravinsky or Dave Matthews – that’s not why we write!

“Or to pick it apart by ear, because they can't commit it to paper for one reason or another?”

Why not teach an original song this way? Why not bring a melody into rehearsal and let the group create the rest of the music?

“Might it not be _harder_ to make a good a cappella arrangement of a non-a cappella song than it is to compose something original?”

I don’t think it’s a matter of ‘easier’ or ‘harder.’ Arranging is also a creative process, and is certainly worthwhile. I do think that arrangements need to truly be arrangements, not transcriptions (do you know the difference?).

Producing a ‘good’ arrangement is just as much composing as writing from scratch. Performing a ‘good’ arrangement is just as challenging as performing an original. Not better/worse, just different beasts.

But in terms of artistic legitimacy, appeal to music industry people, and viability as a genre of music, there is a HUGE difference. You aren’t going to crack into the mainstream unless you are performing original music. No matter how many groups say they are the next big thing, you are going to sit with your local following of a cappella fans unless you are really doing something original – and a cappella has been around long enough that doing instruments with your mouth does not count as original anymore. Vocal Jazz groups can get away with it because that’s the aesthetic preference in Jazz. But in pop and rock? Until you stop relying on other people’s music, a cappella is going to be a novelty, and to the average joe is going to be little more than an easy punchline.

Great comments! Let’s have more!

‘Til next time,

Be Original!

You can reach Mister Tim at tim at moosebutter dot com

If you would like your music to be featured on the A Cappella Originals podcast it must be in the CASA A Cappella Originals mp3 library. For information on donating your recordings to the CASA A Cappella Originals mp3 library email podcast@casa.org or phone: 415-358-8067
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