Simply defined, acapella singing is singing without instrumental accompaniment. Strict acapella groups feature no backing track or instrumentation whatsoever, relying on the human voice to serve as the sole auditory element of a song or other musical composition.

Acapella singing is quite difficult for several reasons.

 First and foremost, singers commonly rely on the solid notes of instruments to keep their vocalizations in tune. Without instrumentation as a reference, maintaining the proper pitch becomes far more challenging. With no instrumental cues to trigger changes, acapella singing also makes remembering a song’s structure more difficult.

To make matters even more challenging, acapella singers who go off pitch have no instrumentation to hide behind. When a song is only composed of human voices, each wrong note is quite easy to hear.

However, people can improve their ability to sing acapella by training their ears and practicing their pitch. One exercise to accomplish this is playing the notes of a song on an instrument or a recording and then singing those same notes in order. By practicing this many times while constantly checking the pitch, the person is bound to become a far stronger acapella singer.