The Power of the Voice

The human voice is an extremely underrated instrument.  As a pure instrument, it may be the most versatile one we humans possess.  Yes, the guitar has many effects that people have used throughout rock music, but the human voice has been able to replicate many of those tones.  The voice can also imitate a bass, or the drums.  Add on the fact that it is the easiest method of conveying your story to your audience, you have a pretty versatile instrument.  I may have my biases because I have been a singer for a long time, but that just gives me more of an appreciation and understanding of what the voice can do.

The average voice has a range of about 2 octaves, which is the range the average guitar player can generally play.  A good guitarist can use all 3.5 octaves on the guitar just like many good singers have ranges of over 3 octaves.  A good voice is like a good guitarist, only that it can do more.  One thing that the human voice has been doing for years that gives it an edge over the guitar is beat boxing, which is using the human voice to imitate the percussion sound. 

This is Come Together by The Beatles performed by the University of Georgia Accidentals.  This group is a staple of ICCA (International Championship of Collegiate Acapella) and this is one of their more famous renditions.  This is a good introduction into all the things the human voice can do.    Its a very good sampling of the beat box quality of Acapella and shows too how the human voice can emulate the guitar. 

Another group that is a staple at ICCA competitions is the SoCal Vocals from USC and they have in fact won the competition twice in the last decade.   This is a link to the repertoire page on their website which includes samples of songs.  Some of my favorites covers are Pinball Wizard, Otherside, Cold-Hearted, and Since You've Been Gone, and Underground. I am not a fan of a few of the artists, but the Acapella covers of their songs are incredible in the way they show what the voice can do.

This next one is more professional than the last 2 groups, so does sound a bit better.  This is an arrangement written by violinist Petra Haden.  She decided to write a whole Acapella album of her singing all parts (drum, bass, guitar, etc...) to the album The Who Sell Out.  This video is a rendition written off of that for a 10 voice women's group.  

I showed how the voice can emulate old school rock, new school rock, pop music, and harder rock.  If you are metal head, don't worry they have Acapella for you.  Van Canto is an Acapella metal group that also covers some songs by well known metal bands.  This is them doing master of Puppets.  Now, you can clearly here that they are not "true" Acapella in that they do not have someone beat boxing but have drums.  

The Guitar may be a very versatile instrument, but it cannot perform the range of functions of the voice.  Not just the fact that the voice can emulate the bass and can beatbox, but it has words.  While songs can tell a story without many lyrics (Symphony X's "The Odyssey"), lyrics give you more freedom to tell a story.  Every aspect of the story can be told through the human voice.