AcaSpot can help you manage your arrangements,
tracks for your CDs, and and even help you plan
your spring break tour.
AcaSpot is a collaboration tool built specifically
with a cappella in mind. Instead of just sharing
arrangements, AcaSpot lets you assign each member
to a voice part, making set list planning a snap.
Working with a mix engineer you've never met?
Wouldn't it be great if your group had some sort
of forum to comment on each mix? What if your
mix engineer could see those comments and adjust
the mix accordingly?
All this and more is possible with AcaSpot.
Email webmaster@acaspot.com
to sign up your group for FREE. Please include
your group's name, your school, and your
school's location.
Wednesday, April 16 by Shane
Each semester, you intend to do a better job at promoting your auditions or your concerts. You try to plan ahead, get the word out, and get people excited about your group. But usually the time flies by so fast that all of a sudden it’s 3 weeks until the concert and you haven’t even posted it on your website.
A RARB forum subscriber asks how to promote and motivate his group to do the same. It is a must read. Even if you already know you should, it’s motivating to hear tried-and-true methods that have worked for other successful groups. These are definite musts for groups who wish to continue forward and not remain stagnant (or move backwards)!
[RARB Discussion: Promoting shows, concerts, and auditions]
0 comments (Add a comment)
Thursday, April 10 by Shane
Did you know you can pull your members’ bios from Acaspot through an iframe for your website? All you have to do is copy and insert the following code:
<iframe frameBorder="0" src="http://www.acaspot.com/group?g=1&i=1" style="width: 600px; height: 470px"></iframe>
However, the URL in this code must match your particular group id. Go to your Acaspot home page and click on your group’s profile. The URL will be something similar to:
http://www.acaspot.com/group?g=1
All you have to do is add &i=1 to the URL (which tells Acaspot to return the page formatted correctly for a 600px wide iframe) and put it into the iframe code above, then use the code on your website.
0 comments (Add a comment)
Monday, April 7 by Shane
I’ve been reading some old forum discussions for a post I’ll be writing in the next few days. I came across one lively feed from 2003 and thought it was an interesting read.
In short, what is the Music Director’s role within the group? Some groups responded with the Music Director/President as the be-all-end-all. Some have 2 or 3 officers with equal authority, while still others split up the music responsibilities between the Music Director, arrangers, and section leaders in addition to a million other officer roles. The thread also evolves into a discussion of how rehearsals are run. It’s interesting to see that there are so many ways of doing it, and no single solution is always the best.
I’m sure a lot of this depends on the size of the group. And I certainly advocate re-evaluating every once in a while, because as the group members change, so does the talent pool (when it comes to leadership, teaching, and administrative skills) within the group.
Any thoughts?
[Music Director’s Role?]
0 comments (Add a comment)
Tuesday, April 1 by Shane
The CARA winners were announced today. If you’re interested, head on over to the CASA website to see the winners.
Meanwhile, a good friend of ours won two awards: Best Religious Album and Best Religious Song. Congrats, Jon!
0 comments (Add a comment)
Wednesday, March 26 by Shane
For those of you who don’t know, an article entitled “Perfect Tone, a Key That’s Mostly Minor“ appeared in the New York Times on Sunday. The author, Mickey Rapkin, is also writing a book on “the history and traditions of collegiate a cappella singing” called Pitch Perfect.
It’s an interesting read, and has also sparked some discussion over at RARB. At first glance the author seems to assert that a cappella can’t break through to the “major league”, but after reading the author’s responses on RARB, I don’t think that’s how he really feels. Hopefully the book will pay some tribute to groups like Naturally 7 who are certainly not what you expect from an “a cappella group”.
What’s so funny to me is that in the discussion everyone refers to collegiate a cappella as “our world” or “sub-culture”. There is definitely a certain community that participates in or appreciates a cappella, but is it really that rigid? Granted, a lot of barbershop stereotypes come along with the term “a cappella” that I myself have had to dispel with some of my friends. And lately I’ve noticed a lot of semi-pro groups departing from the term “a cappella group” and marketing themselves as a “vocal band”, including my own. Honestly, it probably is in an attempt to distance themselves from the doo-wop stereotype. Does it really sound that much “cooler”?
I do think that the general public has come a long way, and I think that the more quality music that gets put out there by collegiate groups (and original music by professional groups), the more accepted it will be. But I don’t think covers will ever be mainstream. I mean, let’s face it, my collegiate group singing an almost exact replica of a pop song that already gets a lot of airplay is not going to get on the radio. But I think that original music could.
I say this as a person who has never written an original song I am yet to be proud of, or shared with many people. And it’s been so long since I’ve tried I don’t even remember all the words to the songs I did write. But I see a lot more professional and semi-professional groups springing up and moving that direction.
0 comments (Add a comment)
Thursday, March 20 by Shane
Each group’s storage space has been increased, again, to a total of 500 MB. We’ve continued to see a higher demand for the space, and thanks for using AcaSpot!
Don’t forget that if you have any feedback for AcaSpot, you can post it in the comments on the AcaSpot blog. You’ll have to register for the blog, but it’s fast and free, and a great way to communicate with us.
0 comments (Add a comment)
Monday, March 17 by Shane
Your AcaSpot Start Page is made up of widgets that display your profile, rehearsal attendance, recent posted arrangements, news articles, your group’s calendar and more.
Did you know you can customize the layout of your start page? All you have to do is click and drag each widget. Arrange them so that the updates that are most important to you, be they attendance and arrangements or profile updates, are right where you want them.
0 comments (Add a comment)
Monday, March 10 by Shane
I recently read that CASA elected a new President. Apparently the CASA Board of Directors holds elections annually, although the leadership doesn’t change every year. That’s something I didn’t know and will be watching in the future!
Dave Brown, a long-standing member of the Board of Directors and newly elected CASA president, has been involved in CASA for quite some time already. In an interview with Marty Gasper, Dave discussed some of his action items for the year.
Briefly, what are some issues you want to tackle this year?
- Survey the a cappella community more effectively to learn how we can help them.
- Increase advertising for our existing programs, so people can take advantage of our resources: awards, training, blogs, reviews, arrangements, a cappella radio, mp3s, discussion forum, info databases, podcasts, etc.
- Build a greater network of volunteers to help us carry out our programs to benefit the community
- Update old programs, make them more relevant
- Improve the ambassador system
- Introduce new benefits for our members
- Increase our outreach to younger people and others who aren’t familiar with contemporary a cappella
Honestly I’m not sure if the a cappella growth has been steady or somewhat of a boom, but in the Southeast it certainly feels like a lot of groups, both collegiate and semi-pro, have sprung up within the past 5 years. Previously, the Southeast wasn’t very well connected to the rest of the a cappella community, and the new groups have been slow to catch on due to no fault of their own. Certainly the addition of a CASA ambassador for the Southeast a few years ago was a huge improvement.
I don’t know if any type of rapid growth in the community was resonsible for CASA not keeping up with the times, but I think that Dave’s goals seem to tackle those kinds of obstacles. I’m glad to see all of these issues on his list! CASA has always been a valuable resource, but it’s nice to see it plans on becoming even more so.
Former presidents Jonathan Minkoff and Deke Sharon are still highly involved with the continued effort to reach more of the community. In fact, Deke will be serving this year as Dave’s VP.
Read the full interview: Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of CASA!
0 comments (Add a comment)
Friday, March 7 by Shane
I can’t even begin to list the arrangements I’ve started and never finished… usually because I decided the song wasn’t the right choice for my group. Every once in a while, though, there’s a song that I really want to work, if I could just get past that huge roadblock staring me down and get the vision in my head down on paper in a way that will work for the singers.
Deke Sharon, founder of CASA and originally introduced to me as “Mr. A Cappella”, shares a few tips on how to get past “arranger’s block”. Some tips include listening to the original while you’re focusing on something else like cleaning or work, soliciting advice from seasoned arrangers you know, and re-vamping your entire arranging process.
What do you do to overcome “arranger’s block”? Let us know in the comments.
CASA: Arrangers Block by Deke Sharon
2 comments (Add a comment)
By: gina
I definitely think listening to the original while doing something else is a great strategy. Sometimes I need to take a couple of days away from the song completely, then listen to it with fresh ears to get some inspiration.
By: sryan
What I like to do is write down in words what parts of the original I'm trying to capture with the arrangement. Literally just a list of adjectives, and then I leave it alone for a couple days, and then look at the list again and try to translate that into a cappella ideas.
Monday, March 3 by Shane
Wes Carroll’s vocal percussion instructional videos, Mouthdrumming I and II, are now available for download from acaTunes. Whether you’re starting at the beginning or are just looking to perfect your technique, Wes can help you to understand the theory, expand your repertoire of sounds, master breath control, and build endurance.
acaTunes: Wes Carroll Mouthdrumming I and II
0 comments (Add a comment)
