I am a little concerned that this would be totally unsingable for anybody who actually knows the original well (which is maybe not many people in the scheme of things, but the Bayesian Choir out here has done the original song before.)
I do think there’s an upfront skill you can gain of… just accepting multiple versions of a song as existing, which I think generalizes once you really grok it. (It probably does involve grieving , and like, not a simple thing. But I think it’s pretty valuable for opening yourself up to new positive experiences)
My feeling listening to this one was ‘yup, seems like a fine alternate variation.’ I do find some elements good and some a bit meh (I’m not sure I can articulate the differences at the moment, but, once you get over the general ‘aah this is different’, I think it’s still legitimate to look at what a song is trying to do, and evaluate both how well it succeeds at that thing, and whether the thing it was trying to do was the right thing)
(Maybe to clarify: you say “totally unsingable for anybody who actually knows the original well”, and I want to say “this is definitely false. A true statement would be “for people who know the original well, and who index songs in their head as having one canonical version”, or something like that)
Yeah, that’s my main issue, too. I know the original incredibly well, I worked out the chords on piano from scratch years ago. So while I get the motivation here I would really have trouble with the adapted version.
I natively have higher expectations in terms of congregational musical and rhythmic ability, due to where I grew up (Congo), so I always feel the need to push back when people dumb down songs for group singing. My brain expects random untrained people to be able to do melody and descant, syncopation and pick-up notes, and so on, because that’s what I grew up with, though I know that’s not necessarily the case here, not with this demographic.
One thing that would work is to have part of the song being sung by the leader, not the whole group. That might be a workable way to incorporate the bridge back into this version of Level Up. Drop back to just low accompaniment and have the best singer do that part solo, then bring people back in. If you were to attempt something more like the original, you could also do this with the start of the song, where the beat is a lot less consistent. Have the leader start the song and then bring people in as you move toward the first chorus and the groove really kicks in.
Also, I wonder if an unclear understanding of the time signature of the original (or an attempt to fit it into something more standard) is causing issues. It’s pretty much all in 7, especially once the beat gets going, and a good rhythm section that can hit the accents right really makes everything quite easy to hit in proper time. There’s a quick and tight 1212123 (with the occasional 1231212) through the whole song (though for the into and first bit of the first verse it’s a lot more nebulous) and most of the “challenging” notes actually land on that first beat of the 7. But yeah, you’d have to have the band really work on the song to get it to a place where you could lead it well in its original form.
A strong generator for my overall Solstice plans was an attitude that my Grandma (who is a jazz musician), brought to our Christmas singing – she noted that there are cultures (and gave some some African countries as examples), where it’s just take as a given that everyone can learn to sing fairly complicated things. And, because of that belief, it becomes true – people are encouraged from a young age sing confidently and complexedly. And they aren’t punished along the way for trying.
So, my overall attitude with Solstice is that the opening songs should be extremely easy, such that, i.e. 80% of the people can sing along easily and the other 20% can sing it with a bit of a stretch. But, over the course of Solstice the average song difficulty ramps up, which acts as a bit of a de-facto tutorial for singing. Meanwhile, throughout the rest of the year have more singing events that end up training the community in some musical skills such that the average quality of Solstice singalongs improves over time.
I have a dream of the overall musical culture eventually “catching back up with” the sort of culture you’re familiar with.
My brain expects random untrained people to be able to do melody and descant, syncopation and pick-up notes, and so on, because that’s what I grew up with, though I know that’s not necessarily the case here, not with this demographic.
I also grew up in a community where a relatively high level of musical proficiency was the default, though more melodic than rhythmic. But this is a different situation, and adapting to the situation is a lot of making things go well.
or an attempt to fit it into something more standard
Yes, this version is not in seven anymore. I don’t think our group would be able to sing a song in seven, and it would strain my abilities as an accompanist as well.
I talked to people afterwards, and the only person who raised anything along these lines said something like “I could tell that you’d changed some things, but didn’t have trouble singing it”.
I suspect we didn’t actually have anyone in our group of 35 or so at the event in the category you’re describing, people who really thoroughly knew the original song. My guess, however, is that if we did have someone like that they would likely also be musically talented enough that they would be able to pick the adapted version up.
I am a little concerned that this would be totally unsingable for anybody who actually knows the original well (which is maybe not many people in the scheme of things, but the Bayesian Choir out here has done the original song before.)
I do think there’s an upfront skill you can gain of… just accepting multiple versions of a song as existing, which I think generalizes once you really grok it. (It probably does involve grieving , and like, not a simple thing. But I think it’s pretty valuable for opening yourself up to new positive experiences)
My feeling listening to this one was ‘yup, seems like a fine alternate variation.’ I do find some elements good and some a bit meh (I’m not sure I can articulate the differences at the moment, but, once you get over the general ‘aah this is different’, I think it’s still legitimate to look at what a song is trying to do, and evaluate both how well it succeeds at that thing, and whether the thing it was trying to do was the right thing)
(Maybe to clarify: you say “totally unsingable for anybody who actually knows the original well”, and I want to say “this is definitely false. A true statement would be “for people who know the original well, and who index songs in their head as having one canonical version”, or something like that)
I probably should have presented this here as a cross-genre cover, and not a straight simplification, fwiw
Yeah, that’s my main issue, too. I know the original incredibly well, I worked out the chords on piano from scratch years ago. So while I get the motivation here I would really have trouble with the adapted version.
I natively have higher expectations in terms of congregational musical and rhythmic ability, due to where I grew up (Congo), so I always feel the need to push back when people dumb down songs for group singing. My brain expects random untrained people to be able to do melody and descant, syncopation and pick-up notes, and so on, because that’s what I grew up with, though I know that’s not necessarily the case here, not with this demographic.
One thing that would work is to have part of the song being sung by the leader, not the whole group. That might be a workable way to incorporate the bridge back into this version of Level Up. Drop back to just low accompaniment and have the best singer do that part solo, then bring people back in. If you were to attempt something more like the original, you could also do this with the start of the song, where the beat is a lot less consistent. Have the leader start the song and then bring people in as you move toward the first chorus and the groove really kicks in.
Also, I wonder if an unclear understanding of the time signature of the original (or an attempt to fit it into something more standard) is causing issues. It’s pretty much all in 7, especially once the beat gets going, and a good rhythm section that can hit the accents right really makes everything quite easy to hit in proper time. There’s a quick and tight 1212123 (with the occasional 1231212) through the whole song (though for the into and first bit of the first verse it’s a lot more nebulous) and most of the “challenging” notes actually land on that first beat of the 7. But yeah, you’d have to have the band really work on the song to get it to a place where you could lead it well in its original form.
A strong generator for my overall Solstice plans was an attitude that my Grandma (who is a jazz musician), brought to our Christmas singing – she noted that there are cultures (and gave some some African countries as examples), where it’s just take as a given that everyone can learn to sing fairly complicated things. And, because of that belief, it becomes true – people are encouraged from a young age sing confidently and complexedly. And they aren’t punished along the way for trying.
So, my overall attitude with Solstice is that the opening songs should be extremely easy, such that, i.e. 80% of the people can sing along easily and the other 20% can sing it with a bit of a stretch. But, over the course of Solstice the average song difficulty ramps up, which acts as a bit of a de-facto tutorial for singing. Meanwhile, throughout the rest of the year have more singing events that end up training the community in some musical skills such that the average quality of Solstice singalongs improves over time.
I have a dream of the overall musical culture eventually “catching back up with” the sort of culture you’re familiar with.
I also grew up in a community where a relatively high level of musical proficiency was the default, though more melodic than rhythmic. But this is a different situation, and adapting to the situation is a lot of making things go well.
Yes, this version is not in seven anymore. I don’t think our group would be able to sing a song in seven, and it would strain my abilities as an accompanist as well.
I talked to people afterwards, and the only person who raised anything along these lines said something like “I could tell that you’d changed some things, but didn’t have trouble singing it”.
I suspect we didn’t actually have anyone in our group of 35 or so at the event in the category you’re describing, people who really thoroughly knew the original song. My guess, however, is that if we did have someone like that they would likely also be musically talented enough that they would be able to pick the adapted version up.