Music Health Home Page

FOR HOUSE CHOIR AND STREET CHOIR MEMBERS,
FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Hello everyone, we launch our Circle of Life Charity CD project this week, starting Monday July 27th 2020. All are invited to sing. This includes everyone in our brand new House Choir and all Street Choir members down here in the south west plus all friends and family. You can contribute as much or as little as you wish and it will be included in the final mixdown of the CD which will feature ten to twelve songs released on CD or DVD and in aid of the DEC Coronavirus appeal.

The first song we will work on is our own arrangement of Elton John's Circle of Life which was made famous in Disney's movie the Lion King from some ten years ago. Popular songs like this, particularly when they have been associated with films that families have enjoyed, are really good at bringing different generations together. They are a powerful way of providing connection in difficult times and helping us feel we are part of a community and supported by others - priceless !!

I have put together a big old fashioned arrangement of the song. You have to put up with my voice providing the guide voices for the two men's parts (baritone - low male voice and tenor - high male voice). Kim does a much better job on the main vocal line (low female part - alto) and she also provides a guide for you sopranos out there - the higher notes for the ladies.

PLEASE WEAR HEADPHONES OR EAR BUDS IF YOU HAVE THEM

Listen to the 'mix' first with the guide vocals as described above. It will sound slightly artificial because there are only two voices, so I have added some chorusing effects to give it the pretend sound of a choir. Please listen with headphones if you can.

Here is the mix including all guide vocals

Here are all the separate parts on their own so you can hear the harmonies.

High alto main melody

Low alto harmony in choruses

Soprano in choruses

Soprano at end of song

Baritone in choruses

Tenor in choruses

Lyrics for printing out if you don't have them already

RECORDING INSTRUCTIONS

The idea is that you record onto your smartfones, tablets or computers a version of you singing along with the song. Any of the harmony parts you fancy, it really doesn't matter and it doesn't need to be complete or performed to some kind of standard (whatever that means!). I wont tell you how many hours I spent retuning my own voice on the computer to get it to sound vaguely in tune for this project !! So please, just go for it. What counts is being a part of it. The technical quality of the singing really doesn't matter that much. Make sure you warm up a bit before doing the recording perhaps by gently singing it through a few times and getting used to the melody and of course the harmony parts.

Just sing in your natural voice - that is what we are looking for : )

Now here's the tecchie bit - the recording ideally needs to be just your voice, not your voice and the song. There are two ways to do this, see below. You also need to make sure you don't sing too close to the microphone built into your computer, tablet or phone, otherwise it might distort. Equally if you sing too far away from your phone it might sound too distant, so feel free to experiment with this and you can decide for yourself what is a nice sound.

RECORDING METHOD ONE

ONLY VOICE RECORDED - REQUIRES EARBUDS OR HEADPHONES.

Play the song back through one device with headphones plugged in to that device. The device can be anything - a laptop or dektop computer, a phone or a tablet. Then record your voice singing along onto another device- ideally a smartfone tablet or another computer,Perhaps pull one earphone off your ear slightly so you can hear your own voice in the room as well as the music in your headphones/earbuds.

On a laptop or desktop computer you might be able to play the song back through your headphones and at the same time record your voice using the inbuilt software of the computer. This might also be possible on a tablet or a good smartfone as well. It can all get a bit technical to be honest but I shall leave you to play around and if in doubt give me a shout or perhaps, for some, call the grand children ! Do remember we have various technical ZOOM sessions to support you in this endeavour and we will back this up with one to one telephone call and ZOOM meetings if required. There is loads of time to get this sorted, so we shall just take our time and enjoy the challenge and sort it out together - rezzzult !!

RECORDING METHOD TWO

MUSIC AND VOICE RECORDED

IF YOU HAVE NO EARBUDS OR HEADPHONES

If you have no access to earbuds or headphones we can still use your recording but try and make sure that music is very quiet in the background and that your voice dominates the final sound as much as possible. If the sound of the music in the background is too loud then it makes editing the music later a little tricky to be honest.

HEARING YOUR OWN VOICE FOR THE FIRST TIME

A word of support - for many, hearing your singing voice back for the first time, particularly on its own can be a really strange feeling.

THIS IS NORMAL !

Don't let that stop you singing and sending in your recording. Whatever you sound like is BRILLIANT because you have decided to be a part of the project to use music to bring us together and to share with others. This is a really important thing to say. Also the guide voices you can hear have lots of effects on them - echo and chorus as well. Once I receive your raw recording I will add these effects to your voice too, to make sure it sounds really professional !!

You will have questions - nigel@musichealth.co.uk

you should be able to send me the recording you have made by email. If you have trouble with this just contact me and we can go through it. Please email all your recordings to nigel@musichealth.co.uk

L et the fun begin - what a pleasure to know that our House Choir and street choir voices are coming together to make this happen.

This really is very special indeed.

*****