Voices-only Wednesday: 10,000 reasons to harmonize

Welcome to Voices-only Wednesday. This occasional online feature highlights the best a cappella videos that come across our eyes — and ears — on the web.

Well, mostly.

This week’s selection isn’t a video, but we couldn’t pass up the chance to feature the treasure trove shown to us by members of the Grace Chapel Church of Christ in Cumming, Ga.

The church’s music ministry leader, Tim Reynolds, has mixed hymns — traditional and contemporary — in four-part harmony and archived them in mp3 format on the ministry’s website. You’ll get the name of the song, its key and a good old-fashioned introductory “hummmmm” to help you get the pitch right. 

Whether you’re a soprano, alto, tenor or bass, you can listen to all four parts at once or each part by itself. You also can hear versions with one specific part in your left ear and the other parts in your right ear. (Or switch your earbuds around if you want to do it vice-versa.) You also can download PDFs of the sheet music.

Try the “alto left” version of Matt Redman’s “10,000 reasons,” for example. Or here’s an “equal mix” version of “Cover Me” by Mike Rogers. There are hundreds more to choose from.

And, since it doesn’t feel right having absolutely no videos on this post, here’s a cover of Acappella’s “Lead Me To Rest” by a group called Hope Acappella. Based on the makeup of the group, we assumed part of this song was in Japanese, but someone in the comments section claims it’s Shona, a language spoken in Zimbabwe. 

Linguists among us, help us out. 

(And make sure to note the J.J. Abrams-esque “lens flares” in the video.) 

Send us your selections for Voices-only Wednesday. Post your a cappella recordings to YouTube or Vimeo and send us the links. Or recommend your favorite videos in the comments section.