Friday 18 May 2012

Let's Come Together In Sweet Harmony

Note: All links in this post direct to music videos on YouTube, so feel free to click through and listen while you read!

Everybody's Free (To Feel Good), and what makes me feel good is great harmony, particularly vocal harmony.


One of the amazing things about vocal harmony, in my opinion, is that it is impossible to do it on your own. It's a community activity.  It requires cooperation.  It requires not just singing together, but listening to each other and blending (beautiful blending demonstrated here by The Beatles). You have to tune in to those who you are singing with, and this inevitably makes you feel more connected with those people.

It's no wonder that whenever there is a desire to galvanise a community, communal singing often comes into it, whether it is football chants, national anthems or church hymns. Gareth Malone's TV series "The Choir" has gone some way to demonstrate the power that choirs have to bring communities together, and to share part of themselves (their voice) in the aid of creating something bigger than themselves.

So if you want a revolution, perhaps music is a good place to start!

Image: Me singing with my barbershop group, Head Row, in Leeds.

1 comment:

  1. There is a new film out that we have planned for our next film season in Transition Forest Row

    "Song was the weapon of choice when Estonians sought to free themselves from decades of Soviet occupation. The Singing Revolution is an inspiring account of one nation’s dramatic rebirth. It is the story of humankind’s irrepressible drive for freedom and self-determination."
    http://www.singingrevolution.com/

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