It’s Secret Santa time! To ensure that everyone gets a duet partner on the piece they did last week, we’re assigning partners. It’s Secret Singer, I suppose, or Mystery Melodist, or something along those lines. So if you did a Part 1 last week, you’ll get a Facebook Private Message from us today with whose Part 1 you should download this week and sing along with.
Officially, the Prompt: improvise the second half of a duet this week on one of the “first halves” (found here on Soundcloud) that were recorded last week.
So, what if you didn’t record a Part 1 last week? Fear not, you can still play. Just pick anyone’s Part 1 and go for it. AND, so that people who contributed a Part 1 can have the same freedom of choice, here’s a way they can “earn extra credit”: you also may do a duet on any piece you want, but please first take care of your Secret Singer partner. (Spoiler alert: everyone earns an “A” just for contributing whole-heartedly, whether you do “extra credit” or not.) We’ll discuss, in the Facebook Group, the protocol for posting multiple submissions this week.
Options
It’s good to have options. Usually we make Option A a way to make the prompt a bit easier, and Option B a way to go a bit further with it. This week… we’d just encourage you to make your duet in the spirit of kindness and generosity, with the intention of making your partner (and the overall piece) sound as brilliant and wonderful as they naturally are. That said, you should feel free to explore the continuum (and find a balance) between these extremes:
Option A: Minimalistic and Spontaneous – For this option, resist the urge to listen to your partner’s piece more than about once or twice before recording your duet to it. This calls upon your abilities to be present and responsive, even in the absence of the normal body-language cues that would be there in a synchronous duet. Go as naked and sparse as you feel you safely can, while still adding something to the piece that elevates it (whatever that means) and feeds your natural desire to express yourself.
Option B: Look Ma, I’m a Producer! – Our Society is about spontaneous singing, not about mastery of recording technology. That said, here’s permission to play George Martin (or Berry Gordon or Sam Philips etc). If you wish, you may use whatever recording technology you’re comfortable with to make more of your partner’s piece than they might ever have thought possible. Wall of Sound? Sure, but be mindful not to dominate—again, we encourage you to make your partner shine. But if you’ve got these skills and you feel you’ve just gotta use ’em, have at it.
To Contribute
The steps are as follows:
- Step 0: Sign up for a free SoundCloud account here. Join the SSS group.
- Step 1: Record yourself singing your Asynchronous Duets, Part 2 recording.
- Step 2: Upload to SoundCloud and post the track to the SSS group.
- Step 3: Listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow singers. (Play nice!)
Deadline: Your tracks should be uploaded by midnight wherever you are on Monday, April 27, 2015.
Length: The length of your finished work should be about the length of your partner’s piece!
Description: It would be awesome to include a short description of where and when you sang your piece—and how it felt.
Title/Tag: When uploading to SoundCloud, put “[sss-async2]” in the title of your track. Also include the term “sss-async2” as a tag. This will help us find it.
Group: Once the track is uploaded, click on the “Add to group” button below the waveform and make sure to select the Society for Spontaneous Singing group. (This option will only appear if you have already joined the group! So do that now.)
Linking: You are welcome to include this info in your description:
This track is a reply to “SSS Prompt 13: Asynchronous Duets, Part 2.” More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org. You can join the SSS at https://soundcloud.com/groups/society-for-spontaneous-singing
Thank you, sweet singers!