A Good Soloist
The collegiate a cappella world is one of great complexity. Amidst all that there is to take in, The Importance Of… highlights what is truly important, and elements of a cappella that may otherwise be overlooked.
This week, we look at the importance of… a good soloist
One of the main knocks against me, personally, as an a cappella critic is that I don’t have a tremendous amount of technical knowledge when it comes to music. This is often a legitimate gripe, but one hidden benefit to my limitation is that I can see through the eyes of the everyman, and notice the pieces of performances that are most apparent to my fellow musical amateurs. With this in mind, there’s no overstating the importance of a strong soloist.
Mind you, a group’s overall sound is extremely important. But to most of an audience, the quality of a soloist’s performance is far more important than the sum total of what the rest of the group is doing. The soloist is, traditionally, the person standing in front, which draws visual attention to him or her. Furthermore, in singing the lyrics, this person is generally performing the part of the music that is most familiar to the audience, and so, the part that is easiest to notice succeed or fail—whether its hitting the right notes, maintaining the tempo, or remembering the words. In addition to accuracy, the soloist is the person most responsible for forming an emotional connection with an audience, standing in the forefront, and not just singing, but needing to actively perform each and every line.
Given the individual importance of the soloist, it is essential for this person to have stage presence. In some cases, this means a lot of movement, working the stage. In some cases, it’s a matter of stage presence, communicating confidence, or perhaps vulnerability for a ballad. Whatever the case, this person is quite noticeably separate from the rest of the group, and so should not need to play along with the choreography in quite the same way as the rest of the group. For example, I’ve seen soloists try to keep up with the hand drives and complicated step movements of the rest of the groups. This just ends up looking silly, and often takes away from the soloist’s ability to keep his or her musical part going strong.
A soloist is immediately noticeable, and is key to the success of any song in the eyes and ears of the audience. It’s a position of the utmost importance.