Mind the Gap
- Trills on a Tuesday
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Elliot was our guest MD this week and he put a new twist on the dreaded tongue circles. Think of a phrase or chorus of a song and hum that tune while you circle your tongue in one direction and when the phrase is finished, do it again circling your tongue the other way. This way you can concentrate on the notes rather than the pain in the tongue!
You’re the Voice, a high energy song, so pace yourself. It needs energy from the start, but you have to keep something in reserve for the big build up towards the end.
The Oohs should crescendo and think bright, so notes aren’t flat.
The rhythms and cut offs are important in this song. ‘We have’ should have a short ‘have’ with a strong ‘v’ sound.
With the next set of Oohs, even though the notes are going down, think up and sing them to the end of the bar. This helps to keep up the energy.
The gaps in the phrasing are critical. ‘…We’re all someone’s son’ count 123 before coming in on ‘How long…’ which is syncopated then a slight gap before ‘…barrel of a gun’
Familiarise yourself with the words so you can look up and watch for the cut offs and timings.
This song should sound like a fanfare! Not quite sure if this is what Elliot mean't
You’ll Never Walk Alone, is a much slower pace. When Altos, Tenors and Basses sing their Oohs from ‘You’ll never walk ooh’, sing (in your head) ‘alone’ with the Sops and you’ll know when your Ooh starts after the ‘a’ of ‘alone’
‘tossed and blown’ - ‘tossed’ is not aggressive but should be emphasised with a very short gap before ‘and blown, but don’t take a breath!
The Sound of Silence is a song by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, written by Paul Simon. It was featured under both the opening and closing credits of the 1967 film The Graduate.
Paul Simon wrote The Sound of Silence when he was 21 years old, later explaining that the song was written in his bathroom, where he turned off the lights to better concentrate. "The main thing about playing the guitar, though, was that I was able to sit by myself and play and dream. And I was always happy doing that. I used to go off in the bathroom, because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I'd turn on the faucet so that water would run (I like that sound, it's very soothing to me) and I'd play. In the dark. 'Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk with you again.
The lyrics of the song are written in five stanzas of seven lines each. Each stanza begins with a couplet describing the setting of the scene, followed by a couplet driving the action forward and another couplet expressing the climactic thought of the verse, and closes with a one-line refrain referring to "the sound of silence".
The progress of the lyrics through its five stanzas places the singer into an incrementally increasing tension with an increasingly ambiguous "sound of silence". The irony of using the word "sound" to describe silence in the title lyrics suggests a paradoxical symbolism being used by the singer, which the lyrics of the fourth stanza eventually identifies as "silence like a cancer grows". The "sound of silence" is symbolically taken also to denote the cultural alienation associated with much of the 1960s.
The first stanza presents the singer as taking some relative solace in the peacefulness he associates with "darkness" which is submerged "within" the ambiguous sound of silence.
The second stanza has the effect of breaking into the silence with "the flash of a neon light" which leaves the singer "touched" by the enduring ambiguity of the sound of silence.
In the third stanza, a "naked light" emerges as a vision of 10,000 people all caught within their own solitude and alienation without any one of them daring to "disturb" the recurring sound of silence.
In the fourth stanza, the singer proclaims in a declarative voice that "silence like a cancer grows," though his words "like silent raindrops fell" without ever being heard against the by now cancerous sound of silence.
The fifth stanza appears to culminate with the urgency raised by the declarative voice in the fourth stanza through the apparent triumph of a false "neon god". The false neon god is only challenged when a "sign flashed out its warning" that only the words of the indigent written on "subway walls and tenement halls" could still "whisper" their truth against the recurring and ambiguous form of "the sound of silence".
Eamonn’s arrangement of this song is very different to the original with many gaps and elongated notes, so beware and be ready! You do NOT want to fall into one of Eamonn’s famous dunce holes!
The gaps get longer as the song goes on, especially from ‘Hear my words that I might teach you…’ (Count 123 in your head) .’Take my arms that I might reach you….’ (count 12345 in your head). ‘….and echoed in the well…’ (count up to 12 in your head).
Don’t be afraid of the silences, they add tension and atmosphere. Feel the emotion in these gaps as if you are in awe!
With over 1billion sales Disturbed's cover of "The Sound of Silence" (originally by Simon & Garfunkel) amplifies the original meaning of a profound communication breakdown, emotional isolation, and societal apathy in a modern, technologically distracted world. The haunting, orchestral arrangement serves as a wake-up call to the danger of failing to connect genuinely with others, with "silence" representing a growing, cancer-like void of indifference.
Both versions carry the same lyrics, but they feel like completely different stories.
One whispers… the other declares.
The Rainbow Connection then changes the style again. It needs to be playful.
Keep the phrasing smooth on ‘… so we’ve been told and we choose to believe it…’ with each word getting the same emphasis making it a sweet and magical sound.
Make the call a response in ‘Have you been half asleep….’ Like a conversation.
Next week Elliot will take us through the rest of You’re the Voice, Crossing the Bar, The Rhythm of Life, Here Comes the Flood and Matthew & Son.
In the gap between now and Tuesday, listen to the tracks and practise your parts!
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