Shawn Stockman’s ‘Sing-Off’ Blog: Bringing The Best Of The Best Forward

Let’s face it. A cappella isn’t considered “mainstream” — not because it doesn’t sound good, but the level of difficulty in the average joe executing sounds that won’t inherit them boos and jeers.

There’s no “I” in team, and a cappella requires a cohesive, vocally sound human being band. Which means you have to know who sounds good enough and who doesn’t to be a part of the team!

For many who have tried to assemble such a group, may have found themselves running into roadblocks, and opted out to do the “sang-thang” alone. But how many times have we seen some local loco step on stage to sing a solo and sound like straight stir-fried crap? How many professionals you hear do the same thing? We’ve all been witnesses to both scenarios, yet music is still very much a subjective art!

What sounds good to some may not sound good to others!

Not so much with a cappella, and certainly not with the contestants on “The Sing-Off”! We don’t go through the syndication of a grueling audition process. The acts you see on the show have already been auditioned and picked based on their already-honed skill. So what you are seeing is the best of the best for that season!

But if a viewer gets upset because a group they liked didn’t make it to the next round, it may not have been because they weren’t good, but in comparison to everyone else, they just didn’t measure up! But we’ll save that topic for next week’s blog. Let’s just highlight ALL of the singers!

It’s so hard to impress, let alone, keep the studio and television audience’s attention consistently every week a group makes it on the show. To display diversity, style and harmonic range, all while staying on key, is not a simple feat! These groups have a regiment that rivals most professional singers!

From all of them learning the opening numbers, vocals with choreography included. They then have to perfect their own individual performances — this week, including not one, but TWO songs, each from different eras of music. I must stress that the groups have no band to back them, they ARE the band! So if their “horn section” is having some throat issues due to the fatigue from constant rehearsals or lack of sleep from some of the groups still having to commit time to their college studies, it could mean the difference of another week on the show or a ticket back home!

I personally get emotionally involved with all the acts because I know first-hand how difficult their job is and, well, they’re just damn INCREDIBLE!

Just know that these kids on this show work harder than ANY vocal competition I’ve seen on television. Their voices are the fireworks, AND the bright lights all wrapped into one! But you’ve seen some of the groups who, from last week’s performances seemed to be a shoe-in for the finals, make a couple of missteps in their arrangements that left me and the judges not as impressed as we hoped. Other performances brought another great group’s hopes to an end! It goes to show that NO ONE is safe from elimination!

It’s narrowing down fast, and next week is definitely going to be a hot one!

This week’s style put together by Sharhonda Stockman was a maroon sweater with grey letterman type stripes on the arm designed by my good friends at JED clothing company. The shirt is by John Nordstrom and the tie by Burberry. The custom black diamond timepiece with matching black diamond earrings compliments of my jeweler Harry Glinberg!

Holla next week people!

– SHAWN