with what you told them. I thought you showed that you don't have to nasty and mean like Simon Cowell to give negative feedback. In fact, if he really quits like the news says he plan to, it would be cool if you took the gig.
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ben folds, question, do you use omegle? Hey I'm Kat. I realize this really random however i think i just talked to you, which is amazing because i love your music. I've listened to it ever since i can remember...like matt costa and donavan frankenreiter, your music speaks to me and hits me just right. It's also helped through so many things with my family and friends. Just some how let me know if we talked because it mean the world to me to be acknowledged by one of my idols.
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Kat.

The judging is going fine. The people whining are those that are losing their favorite contestants.

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Ben,

Let me start by saying I loved that the Sing Off happened, and that you were very insightful as a judge. Regardless of my points below, the publicity that the show garnered for the a cappella world was priceless, and I hope that it is picked up for a subsequent seasons and expanded beyond its original schedule. I don't know what the ratings were, but I really hope they were big.

That being said, there are aspects of the show that kept me from enjoying it as much as I wanted to.

Going into it, I hoped that the Sing Off would follow a format along the lines of So You Think You Can Dance, which has a lot of parallels vis a vis raising the public awareness of an art form, and showcasing as many of the flavors of that art form as possible.

In the case of SYTYCD, the competitors randomly choose which dance style they will be performing for each of their contest numbers, and it could be ballet, contemporary, jazz, various ballroom styles, Bollywood, Broadway, etc. They are all represented on the show approximately equally.

This also forces *all* the competitors to compete in styles that might not be the one they're most comfortable with.

My feeling was that the focus of the Sing Off was almost exclusively on contemporary a cappella almost to the exclusion of everything else, and featuring music primarily from the 1960's forward. This put some groups at a distinct disadvantage for most of the competition, and others at a distinct advantage.

I would have much preferred a format where the a capella style was randomly drawn for each competition performance, and included contemporary, barbershop, jazz, madrigals, gospel, and any others you can think of, in approximately equal amounts.

Don't get me wrong, I love me some Deke Sharon arrangements. And I understand that Sony expects to make money on this venture, so they are looking for groups which they believe have commercial potential. But if that's what the Sing Off is going to be, then call it a contemporary a cappella competition from the start.

In the interest of full disclosure, I do have an opinion about contemporary a cappella devices such as vocal percussion. I enjoy it, a lot, but it still falls into the category of "novelty" for me; a tool to be used in a couple of songs in a group's show set, not all of them.

First, if you are a vocal percussionist with the skills to sound exactly like an actual drum, is it really a cappella anymore? If you are making unvoiced percussive sounds to imitate an instrument, the ensemble is no longer purely a vocal ensemble. It's the difference between a string quartet providing percussive sound via pizzicato vs. having the bass player bang his instrument with a stick. The latter isn't a string quartet anymore; the timbre of the sound is no longer "string".

Second, if I'm sitting there as a listener marveling at how much the vocal percussionist sounds exactly like a real drum set, I'm no longer engaged in the message of the song or being transported by the music being produced. It keeps me out of the moment.

Sorry for the long comment. I hope the producers of the show are able to bring it back again better than ever next season, and that you will be involved again as a judge.

Regards,

Allan Webb
Executive Producer, American Harmony
http://www.americanharmonythemovie.com

I’m a second-year middle school choir director in central Pennsylvania...and I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU for what you brought to “The Sing-Off!” When I saw the previews I was really excited about the concept but worried that it would turn out like all the other reality talent shows out there...decent musicians, but poor feedback and too commercialized to really have much musical meaning or integrity. I was channel surfing last Monday night and landed on NBC about halfway through the premiere episode of “The Sing-Off” and my jaw literally dropped as I heard the feedback you were giving to the groups. Finally, I thought, here’s a professional musician that not only knows what he’s talking about but can articulate it in a way that is meaningful to the performers, makes sense to the audience, and still be honest and musically accurate in compliments and criticisms.

I have always loved the genre of “pop a cappella” singing (I think there needs to be a style distinction made with a cappella singing, because comparing pop a cappella to Palestrina a cappella, for example, is very different!), but quite often it’s poorly done with little to no musical value incorporated in the experience – for the singers or the audience. I was so glad to see that “The Sing-Off” chose a variety of quality groups that sang great arrangements of good charts! In fact, I was so happy with the series that I told all of my students about it and actually incorporated an episode of the show into a few of my general music classes. Many of my kids had never even heard of the genre, let alone seen or heard anything like those groups. They loved it! I’m hoping to try a pop a cappella type piece in one of my middle school choral groups, if I can find an age/ability-appropriate arrangement or come up with an appropriate song to arrange for their voices myself.

I think you really have something here – pop a cappella has the potential to be a great vehicle to get the youth of our country singing again. I would love to see some kind of educational video or even a curriculum series based on the concept created by this show. There are many teachers that turn their noses up at pop vocal music, but if they could see the musical and popular potential in pop a cappella, I think that would all change for many of then! There is also quite a need for quality arrangements of popular music appropriate for high school choirs. Most of the published arrangements of pop a cappella I’ve ever found are way too difficult, or insanely cheesy, and neither are worth spending precious rehearsal time on them.

Anyway, thank you so much for your contribution not only to this TV show, but to the popular music world! I appreciate your ability and integrity.

~Meredith