Last week I was singing Tom Booth’s “
Be With Me, Lord” at a funeral Mass. I seldom look at the music anymore when I sing that song; I know it so well. This time, for whatever reason, I had the music open and decided to ‘read it’ while I played and sang it. I sang it exactly as it was written, for a change! I had one of those moments like, “Oh yeah! Now I know why I first fell in love with this melody. It’s great!” Over time I have (apparently) improvised a lot while singing it, changing a note or two here and there, but this time I sang it the way I first heard it. It was sort of like pushing ‘reset’ on a song. It was pretty cool.
It really got me thinking…do I improvise too much on a melody, simply because I’ve sung it so many times and get bored with singing it the same way over and over? I wonder what the assembly thinks when they hear me do that?
I mean, we are first attracted to songs because of the melody, right? When we hear one of our favorite songs on the radio, we are listening for those familiar notes and words. Isn’t that what makes you want to hear it over and over again? We don’t get bored with listening to our favorite tunes on CD’s or iTunes simply because the music never changes. In fact, we look forward to hearing it the same way. (I remember a comedian talking about hearing bands in concert and wanting to hear the songs 'just like the record.')
Everyone has heard the Star Spangled Banner sung at sporting events. For some reason, most people feel like they have to ‘dress it up’ to impress or make it better. The reality is (I think) that when people hear it sung really well…normally…they tend to clap and cheer louder because “that’s how it goes.”
‘Happy Birthday’ is ‘Happy Birthday’ because it’s, well…’Happy Birthday.’ You don’t change that song! (Okay, maybe not the best example, but you get what I’m saying. :-) )
I am NOT saying that we shouldn’t improvise…of course we should. That’s part of what makes musicians different from one another…the way we, as individual artists, sing and perform music. Maybe, though, we should save it for later in the song…after we’ve presented the ‘actual’ melody a few times. That’s sort of what we do on recordings. We sing it ‘as written’ for the first couple of verses and choruses, then ‘let it rip’ at the end.
It’s something to think about, at least. When people see ‘Be Not Afraid’ on the song list, they’re expecting to hear a certain melody (or ‘Amazing Grace,’ or ‘Ave Maria,’ etc.).
I don’t know. Thoughts? :-)
