Last night I had the pleasure of hearing two phenomenal groups back to back: Sweet Honey in the Rock at Carnegie Hall; then the late show from Rachelle Ferrell’s quartet at the Blue Note.

Putting aside the many quirks of each of these wondrous groups, and the deep traditions they each draw from, I noticed something, viscerally: The room makes the music. Singing spiritual harmonies to fill a concert hall, and singing blazing lines in a jazz club, are very different jobs.

Music travels through the air. Voices ring out against the walls. The particulars of the room — its acoustics, temperature, dimensions, illumination, and especially the state of the humans who are in it listening — has an enormous effect on the music that can be made there.

So let’s experiment with letting the dimensions of the room shape our voices this week. Wherever you are when you sing — try to explore it when you sing. What are the acoustics like? Is there any background noise? How does it feel to be there? Might someone be listening? Let all these circumstances inform your singing. You might be surprised by what comes out.

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.
• 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 Tuesday, Feb 16, 2016.

Description: It would be awesome to include a short description of where and when you sang your piece.

Title/Tag: When uploading to SoundCloud, put “[sss-room]” in the title of your track. Also include the term “sss-room” as a tag. This will help us find it.

Linking: You are welcome to include this info in your description:

This track is a reply to “SSS Prompt 55: Sing to the room.”  More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org .

Thank you, sweet singers!

Yours,
Jascha & Amado