AcaSpot News

If you missed SoJam 2009, you had better start planning for 2010. Weekend passes actually sold out this year and some people had to miss out. Don’t let it be you next year.

CASA posted the results for the competition this morning. I would have posted sooner, but I couldn’t remember them all.

Best Arrangement:
Caitlin Yuhas from Emory Aural Pleasure for “Admiration”

Best Soloist:
Marcus Hines from UGA Accidentals for “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing”

Best Vocal Percussion:
Dele Opeifa from Southern Virginia University “Fading Point”

Best Choreography:
UGA Accidentals and Elon University Sweet Signatures

Audience Favorite Award:
UGA Accidentals

1st Place: Emory University Aural Pleasure
2nd Place: University of Georgia Accidentals
3rd Place: Elon University Sweet Signatures

I personally think the State of Georgia has been well represented at SoJam the past few years, and this year was no exception. Great job to all of the competing groups, and congrats to Aural Pleasure and the Accidentals.

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The AcaSpot Team

Recently launched in May, Mouth Off is a weekly podcast put on by duo Dave Brown and Chris Diaz. Contrary to my original interpretation, Mouth Off is not about vocal percussion, although they did feature some clips of Marty Gasper on last week’s episode. Funny, original, and compelling, the show is recorded with the two in different cities while talking on the phone, then mixed together and posted for our enjoyment.

Segments include “Head2Head” where they compare two a cappella recordings of the same original song (fascinating), “Around the Horn” where they discuss the goings on in the a cappella world, “Better Than The Original” where they feature a song that they deem has a better a cappella cover than the original, and my personal favorate, “Album Review” where, you guessed it, they review an album.

The album reviews are particularly good because they give really useful feedback, whereas I feel other reviews out there are hit or miss in terms of what you can take back with you to improve on the next go around. They also play example clips that demonstrate their points, and it’s great to not only hear the reasoning behind the comments, but you learn little tidbits to keep in your back pocket for your next album.

Definitely go check it out.

[Mouth Off]

I ran across this article today entitled “How To: A 12 Step Program for an Effective Rehearsal, by Ben Bram of The SoCal Vocals” from ACB (acappellablog.com).

The article is prefaced by saying that you first need a strong leader, however, I think that many of the tips in the article help you to get there. Most collegiate groups have such a high turnaround of members and leaders, and it’s hard to jump in an lead your peers. Often times it takes a semester just to get in the groove of things. Anything that can shorten that lead time is valuable information.

If you’re a music director (or, more importantly, aspiring to be one), don’t miss these insights.

[How To: A 12 Step Program for an Effective Rehearsal, by Ben Bram of The SoCal Vocals]

Tickets for SoJam 2008 are on sale now at www.sojam.net.  If your group is submitting an application to compete, you have to buy weekend passes beforehand to be eligible.  Student Weekend Passes are $49 ($55 for the general public).  If you’re not hoping to compete, you can buy tickets for the individual weekend events, which include a Collegiate Competition on Friday evening, workshops during the day on Saturday, and a Professional Showcase on Saturday evening.

This year’s SoJam will again be in Raleigh, NC on November 7-9.   You can get more details at www.sojam.net.