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Music vocabulary · Instruments and Voice

A cappella

Meaning in music, with examples

adverbCommon term

In music, a cappella means: Sung or performed without instrumental accompaniment, using only one or more voices.

In Turkish: eşliksiz

How it is used

Common in choral music, pop arrangements, and rehearsal notes. It describes passages or whole performances without instruments underneath.

Example sentences

  1. For the final verse, the producer asked the group to sing a cappella so the lyric would sound more exposed.

    Here a cappella specifies that the voices continue alone, which changes the texture and brings the words forward.

  2. The choir rehearsed the opening a cappella before adding piano, to fix intonation and blend first.

    In this example, a cappella means the singers practice without instruments so pitch and ensemble can be heard more clearly.

Common collocations

  • sing a cappella
  • a cappella choir
  • a cappella arrangement
  • a cappella section
  • vocalsThe singing parts of a piece of music, especially in pop, rock and jazz. The main singer sings the lead vocals, and others sing the backing vocals.
  • instrumentAn object made or used to produce musical sounds, such as a piano, violin, guitar, drum or ney.

More terms: Instruments and Voice

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