I like working with a smaller group sometimes – it gives me a real sense of each voice and so tonight was great as we had 12 singers for our workshop.
‘Crack the shutters’ was a hit for Snow Patrol in 2008 from the fifth album ‘A Hundred Million Suns’. It’s a simple song with only four chords – classic Snow Patrol. Usually, the lyrics in their songs are sad and often about relationship breakdowns but this one is a classic love song.
I arranged the song into parts recording at Richard’s studio last week. It’s quite a low song so I upped it by a tone and gave singers the option to sing either octave. This gave us a breadth of song not heard in the original. There was a really low part for the three brave blue ladies (well done Michelle, Barbara and Abi!) which really grounded the sound. The altos took the tune and there was an additional harmony line over the top for the chorus right until the very last chorus when I introduced a soprano line to mimic the violin (excellent work Vicky!)
We spent a little time doing some vocal warm ups before diving straight in. Some of the timings on this song are odd and so we spent time getting it right by listening to a line then repeating it. This is THE DULLEST method of learning a song but it works….. so we went with it. As I’d pre-recorded all of the parts we were able to listen to each part in isolation which helped us with the harmonies.
I feel proud of the outcome. Just 12 voices in just 2 hours – some people having not sing together before and others singing totally different parts. Brilliant work. Have a listen and see what you think x
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