Timing is Everything
- Trills on a Tuesday
- Mar 4
- 3 min read
We were led by Tim Jasper, our guest Musical Director this week. Some of you may remember him as our pianist for our Winter 2024 concert. He will be our pianist for our Gala Summer Concert on 16 July 2026.
We recapped the beginning of Here Comes the Flood and then went on to complete the song.
It needs to be a relaxed feeling and not staccato and choppy. Aim for the heavy beat in the music.
The dynamics of this song need to be heard with the chorus being loud and dramatic up to ‘it’ll be those who gave…’ and then go very quiet ‘..to survive’.
Do not breathe in the phrase ‘Don’t be afraid to cry at what you see’
Join the last part of the word on to the next one
e.g. ‘what we used to be’ would sound like ‘what we you stooby’
The Rhythm of Life was next. This is a song from the 1966 Broadway musical Sweet Charity, written by composer Cy Coleman and lyricist Dorothy Fields.
In the musical, the song is performed by the character Big Daddy, the leader of an alternative "hippy" religious group/cult called the "Rhythm of Life Church." In the 1969 movie musical adaptation of Sweet Charity, directed by Bob Fosse (who also directed the original Broadway production), the song is performed by Sammy Davis Jr., who co-stars as Big Daddy in the film.
For those of us who have not sung it before, it seems to be very complicated at first. However, we all get to sing the different lines, but not at the same time. It can be useful to mark your music score with your vocal line, so you know what to sing and when.
It does make a glorious cacophony of sound and the audience loved it the last time we performed it.
Be patient, it will all fall into place and once it is sung at a faster speed, believe it or not, it is much easier to sing.
Some parts of this song need to be smooth as in the ‘Daddy go….’ Section while the ‘Oh, the rhythm of life is a wonderful beat….’ is more staccato. Best example of Staccato, Money, Money Money.
This is not a competition as to who sings the loudest! It is very tempting to sing your part as loud as possible to drown out the other parts around you, but everyone needs to sing at the same level to create that cacophony of sound and so all the words from every voice part can be heard by the audience.
At the end, ‘Flip your wings and fly to Daddy…’ is a different tempo to the rest of the song as it is swung and as the other voice parts join in, it crescendos to a very loud finale!
You’ll Never Walk Alone needs to be sung with sincerity and love. Think of it as a fragile crystal sphere as the singing starts. It should be delicate and peaceful.
Sops – no breath after ‘storm’ and make ‘golden sky ’ sound like ‘galden sky’.
Be very precise with ends of words with ‘d’, ‘t’ and ‘k’ etc.
At the end it should be very loud until you reach ‘one’ of ‘alone’ and then it is very quiet.
You’re the Voice still has a timing issue. ‘Oh, woah’ count 1&2 before coming in on ‘We’re all someone’s daughter…’
The ‘w’ on the ‘woah, whoa’ should be clearly sounded
Tim is with us again next week, so bring all the music with you and he will go over some of these songs and maybe start work on others. Be prepared!
Just a reminder we break up for Easter on 24 March and resume again on 14 April
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