The Perils of A Capella Singing

Back when I was in choir (when our church had a choir), we found it difficult, despite the fine voice training provided by our choir director Dave Collins, to sing a capella pieces.

Well, singing them wasn’t hard, the difficult part was staying on pitch throughout the entirety of the piece.

Our pianist, Kathy Strandquist, would play one note to give us the pitch, and we would set off bravely… only to slowly sag in pitch such that we’d be at least a semitone flat by the time we finished.

I don’t think our audience could tell, and we certainly couldn’t tell, but I’m sure Dave and Kathy could. Kathy was rumored to have perfect pitch, and I see no reason to doubt it.

On days she felt mischievous, she would gently tap the same note at the end that she’d given us at the beginning, to let us know how far we had fallen short.