Wow, there was actually quite a bit of talk in this thread!
From the looks of things, our current situation is:
LBTlover: "Things Change" or "Bestest Friends"
Weather_lord_7: LBT TV Theme song or "Bestest Friends"
Petrie: Bestest Friends
Pokeplayer: "Things Change" or "Bestest Friends"
Malte: "Beyond the Mysterious Beyond"
Dash the Longneck: "Things Change" or "Bestest Friends"
Action9000: "Beyond the Mysterious Beyond" or "Bestest Friends"
which brings the request totals (and number of volunteer voices) so far to:
Bestest Friends: 6
Things Change: 3
Beyond the Mysterious Beyond: 2
LBT TV Theme Song: 1
Looks like our next song will be Bestest Friends, featuring the following members:
LBTlover
Weather_lord_7
Petrie
pokeplayer
malte
dash the longneck
action9000
Malte, if you sing with us, this will be the song with the most vocalists in the history of the Gang of Five!
We're still accepting newcomers to sing Bestest Friends with us (This means you LF1616! You know you want to!), but the Gang of Five has Spoken for song choice. B)
Which version though--the movie version or Olivia Newton-John version? I like that latter more than the former.
From my perspective, there isn't a great deal of difference. If you would prefer the lyrics from the Olivia Newton-John version, that's fine with me. My lyrics site has both versions written out in full. The main difference between the songs is the number of singers, followed by small changes in the lyrics. I plan to use the music I've already produced for Bestest Friends, no matter which version of the song we use (unless it Really doesn't work out for some reason).
I would prefer the movie version so long as none of us have to sing that line.
The two versions of the songs are so similar that if we are to avoid this line, we may as well sing the Olivia Newton-John rendition.
Wow. I just ripped the vocal aspects from the song and just listened to the instruments and I must say that singing along to the movies in sync is near impossible with this song. There are almost no areas where there is distinguishable tones so if you lose your pace, it would be near impossible to pick up again.
The easiest way to avoid getting lost is to get to know the original song very well, to the point where the timing just comes naturally. A more technical way around this issue would be to count and subdivide the beats of the music in your head and remember at which point in which beat each line starts. Nearly impossible? I think not. B) I've had to count tougher stuff than that in my high school band.
Here's a snapshot of some of the sheet music of the first verse. the highlighted blue staff is Petrie's rhythm. The staff 2 below the blue one is Ducky. It's really not all that complex, yet I suppose I would call this section the most complex rhythm in the song (roughly 56 Beats per minute where the quarter note gets the value of 1 beat. There's also an F# in the key signature.)
For this song, I plan to set aside the most rhythmically-complex parts to a single singer. Getting multiple amatuer voices in sync on an overly complex rhythm when the singers can't even hear each other...I'm not going there! I'll keep the group singing mainly to the choruses.
The overall result for you, as a singer, is this:
1) In the verses, feel free to generally be expressive but please try to start each of the lines at close to the correct time or it will be difficult for me to switch voices mid-verse.
2) In the choruses, please focus on keeping your timing fairly strict so we will sound together. If you try to get too expressive with the timing on the choruses, it will sound like a jumble unless we're all expressive in the exact same way. For the sake of simplicity, I say we try to remain as strict as possible in the choruses (unless we all agree that we want to try some fancy schmancy expressive stuff on the choruses, in which case, let the choreography begin! LOL
)
General rule: Try not to be too expressive with the timing, for the sake of staying together.
If you would prefer, I will release a version of the music with instrumental parts playing along to the melody and rhythm of the original vocalists. It makes no difference to me whether you want these melody instruments as guidance or not: I just need to mute or unmute a few (well, about 10) tracks in the studio project file. I'll post up both versions (instrumental melody and no audible melody) and you may sing to whichever version you find easier. I will have the music posted up soon. I need to reboot my computer in 3 GB mode in order to load the project is all, so I've been a bit lazy.
:
Just for fun, here's a small chunk of a piece I had to play on trumpet in grade 11. Note the rhythm complexity and REALLY fast tempo (180 Beats per minute)! By comparison, I consider Bestest Friends quite easy.
(apologies for terrible quality!)
In case you're curious, here's an mp3 I just made up of the entire trumpet part I had to play (this MP3 is played by my computer)
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?acti...165C58F2FFFBAE0I'd still say it's a bit tougher rhythmically than Bestest Friends. If I can do this, you can sing Bestest Friends. I have faith in you. B)
So one last bit of voting:
Do we want to sing to the movie's lyrics, or Olivia Newton-John's lyrics?
