I have done some public performances, both singing and playing. From the perspective of someone who Has Been There, I would like to offer the following bits of advice to people who do public performances:
If you know you're going to be singing in front of thousands of people, and you know that thousands more will be hearing you on the radio, please keep the following bits of advice in mind for your Big Gig:
1) Please, please, please - practice your initial opening! Practice getting your note from a pitchpipe, one person in the group, whatever. However you do it, make sure it's rock solid before your performance day. Taking the first 2-4 lines of the National Anthem to all "blend" and get in tune sounds horrible.
2) I'm glad you know the harmony to the song. Really, I am. But either sing it all, or sing in unison. You just sound stupid and like you didn't practice when you sing unison...harmony for a few bars...unison...whoops, here's a bit I know, I'll do the harmony again...Seriously. Stick to unison.
3) Don't arrange yourselves so the microphone is right in front of your strongest singer. Believe you me, she's pretty much all we heard. (Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. See # 1 and 2).
4) If you're going to put little "ruffles and flourishes" in the music, PRACTICE THEM AHEAD OF TIME. Everyone in the group needs to agree on where the ruffles and flourishes go, and everyone needs to sing the same ones.
If you follow the above tips, you'll sound a lot less like 3 friends who met up on the way into the game and decided to shanghai the mic for the National Anthem.
Thanks everso.
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Better still -- the National Anthem is a "national" kind of sacred music. It does not need embellishment. It does not need interpretation. It does not need flourishes. Most of all, it does not need to be sung s-l-o-w-l-y.
ReplyDeleteHarmony is fine if, as DogMom states, you've got your act together on it. Tempo is around 120. If you're not sure, listen to the Marine Corps Band perform it and consider them the definitive standard.