Getting the relatives to sing

Subject: Getting the relatives to sing
From: pattyClink
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 05:24 PM

I've been inspired by the amazing collection of Christmas parodies to cut and paste a few to take on my trip to see relatives this Christmas. There's me, and one longtime chorus singer, one musical-comedy college student, and some singalongers. I thought I might get us to take turns one evening singing some of these things, maybe in pairs, and have a non-singer do a stirring recitation of the Twelve Thank You Notes. I think the humor aspect of it might get us past the 'whydowewannasingcarols' thing. Anybody ever tried something like this?

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: MMario
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 05:34 PM

sounds like you have 4 0r 5 who will sing regardless. Is it necessary to make others sing? Are you not allowed to carol if the rest don't?

I of course would be all in favour of singing, but if others don't want to, why make them?

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: InOBU
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 05:43 PM

Gee MMario:
Depends how important the information is...
If you have to beat your relitives until they sing, they must be up to something you gotta find out, right?
Larry

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: Matt_R
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 05:46 PM

With my family--just forget it! It's a lost cause!

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: Hollowfox
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 05:48 PM

Try my Teton Tea recipe that I just posted on the Holiday Recipes thread.

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 06:00 PM

I'd rather gouge my eardrums out with grapefruit spoons than get my family to sing... Blood relations or inlaws!!

I musta been adopted!

;-)

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: sophocleese
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 06:09 PM

I associate singing with Christmas and tend to get disappointed if there isn't any group singing, after all I can hear myself sing anytime I want to. However trying to force others to sing who definitely don't is not something I want to do either. There are also rabid anti-singers who can't stand the sound of others singing and will do their best to stop you or prevent you even starting, "Oh nobody wants to sing, its not cool." "Can't you do that somewhere else? Like next door." "HEY EVERYBODY LISTEN TO THIS GREAT JOKE I JUST HEARD!" In between are the people who would have fun singing if somebody else started it, which sounds more like the situation that pattyClink has. Go for it and see what happens!

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: Burke
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 06:14 PM

Assuming your relatives know the tunes, make multiple copies of the words so everyone can join in when they want to.

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 06:17 PM

Spike the coffee/tea/whatever.........Make Alice B brownies.......hire Pat Boone.......never mind.

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: Jeri
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 06:30 PM

It was never hard to get my family started singing.

I wouldn't ask if anyone wants to do it - I'd just start and hope they would realize I'm not going to stop easily. 'Tis easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission, or even get a bunch of folks to come out and admit they'd like to sing. Maybe you could plot with the other singers to make this happen. (It sounds like what you're thinking about doing anyway.)

Sophocleese, I'm not saying this is true in all cases, maybe just some. When I was a kid, I had friends who said things like you mentioned above. I'd keep singing anyway, and they'd join in and have a lot of fun. I suspect they heard all the negative stuff from their parents, siblings or other friends, and thought that's what you're supposed to think/say about singing. I don't think it was what they actually felt themselves. Once they found out nobody was going to give them a hard time at my house, they felt a lot more comfortable. Who knows, if people go through life hearing that singing is somehow wrong with no evidence to the contrary, maybe they come to believe it.

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 06:36 PM

Actually, finding some different stuff to sing should help a lot. I am very tired of the over used stuff--Silent Night, et. al. When we did the Decorating Party at the Nursing home, Dana brought a book that had a lot of "obscure" stuff in it, like Bring a Torch, Coventry Carol, Boar's Head, Cherry Tree, etc. Granted, it is not that "obscure" to "our kind", but most people have never heard this stuff. My dad was the only person I ever knew that sang "I Saw 3 Ships".....and the melody is EZ. If you have/can play piano, go through the melody line once or twice so they can hear it. That always helps, too.

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: Hollowfox
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 10:18 AM

This probably wouldn't be practical with reluctant relatives, but you folks should try out PDQ Bach's christmas carols: Good King Kong, O Little Town of Hackensack, and Throw the Yule Log On Uncle John. (Tempo is everything in that last one.)

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: InOBU
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 10:41 AM

In my mind's eye, I see my ould Da, in the last of his youth, on a crisp morning in New York in the very early 60's or late 50's, hanging out over the Hudson river by one hand and a foot, on the spiked bars that fan out in a half circle to keep one off the pier, an open bottle of champain in his free hand, singing off a friend on the old Queen Elizabeth, when they still knew what an ocean liner was, and Da spiting champain at the ship between verses... Happy new year Da, God rest ye, a damn fine singer and a wild man to make any of us pale with jealousy.
Yer son, where ever your spirit finds itself,
Lor

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 10:58 AM

Ya know Hollowfox, we ought to run a thread on it because I have the feeling there are probably a goodly number of PDQ Bach fans around here...............

This is probably going to come out wrong, but I'll try it anyway. On Christmas Eve we always go to Connie and Waynes and I play and we sing a few. This is a bit of a problem though since I end up "in concert." The kids don't know the standard stuff and the more trad but obscure ones aren't known either by anyone! Their family are avid church goers and we always do a Christmas Eve service at their church. In the service they sing some standards, but a lot of them are things lately written that I have never heard and to be truthful, don't really like.

Before somebody jumps my ass here and says that new songs need to be written and blah, blah, blah.........That's fine, but I notice sommething occurring in a lot of the churches that use live music. I've also seen and heard it at Christian home schoolers meetings and conventions and it kinda' drives me nuts. Most of the new music has a real "manufactured" sound about it. Its like they need a clever tune to match the "let's all sing about Jesus" words and it doesn't come off. I mean like they may be "making a joyful noise" but that's about it because the stuff is damn near atonal! I know its just an opinion and I have one asshole and all that, but I gotta' say the stuff stinks. Of course the kids KNOW these turkeys and its depressing to me that they can't hang with the words or tune to even "Silent Night" but they can rip right along on some unresolving, atonal, manufactured piece of crap just fine. Okay.....End of Rant.

Yeah, it didn't come off well I can see. Just forget I said anything. Sorry.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: Matt_R
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 11:05 AM

Spaw, them Christian homeschoolers give me the creeps. Those folks are wacky as a 3 dollar bill.

--Matt (homeschooled regular)

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 11:13 AM

Yeah, me too Matt. Some I know (and home schooling is real big around here) are fine and carry it off well, but they seem to have an inordinate number of wackos in their midst that get a lot of the attention. Its not the Christian end that bothers me as much as the fact that "zealots" of any sort scare the crap out of me.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: Hollowfox
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 11:17 AM

I know what you mean about some of the new musical choices, 'Spaw. On the bright side, some of the new hymnals have Malvina Reynolds and Sally Rogers songs in 'em and other suchlike. BTW, has anybody else noticed that the secular song-of-choice for school concerts this time of year describes a couple on a date driving carelessly and ending up in a one-vehicle accident? I mean, of course, Jingle Bells.

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 11:26 AM

That's interesting 'fox. I'll be checking on Connie's church's hymnals on Christmas Eve!

Cute joke too....I'll be stealing that one thanks.....

Spaw

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 01:11 PM

In my case, it's "how can I get the relatives to NOT sing?"

good luck!

Alex

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: kimmers
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 02:52 PM

Gotta agree with Spaw on the new-church-music bit... but, I'm an Episcopalian who likes her songs and carols ancient, so that's no surprise. Much of the music being sung in the evangelical church these days consists of simple choruses, repeated ad infinitum ad nauseaum until the Spirit moves.

Now, I will be the first to admit that loud communal singing of something compelling and familiar is a powerful tool for spiritual focus. But it can be accomplished without using the sugarcoated *^$%*)# that these churches are singing. Look at Taize chants, for example, as well as some of the old plainsong pieces. Austere but beautiful.

But I can't get my relatives to sing much either. A shame, since Mom has a nice clear (albeit totally untrained) soprano voice and a reasonal sense of pitch. My hubby is bass, my adopted brother Alan a very nice tenor, and I'm a passable alto. Sigh... the possibilities.

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: pattyClink
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 02:56 PM

Thanks for the feedback. My sister called last night and she liked the idea a lot, and its her house, so we'll give it a whack. Then I hung up and remembered there's an elder relative-in-law coming I've never met. Whatever will she think of the gentlemen singing 'Walking 'round in women's underwear'?? I hope we'll be brave and press on.

Merry Christmas, all, and savor what blessings are there, while they're still there!

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: GUEST,singingnymph
Date: 27 Jun 02 - 10:39 AM

Gosh, I know this was ages ago, but for anyone who ends up in a similar situation: As far as the the PDQ Bach (aka Prof. Peter Schickele) carold go, I heartily agree. They're hilarious w/out being offensive. However, Good King Kong might be a bit tricky if your relatives are a little rhythmically challenged. Another fine song is the 12 Days After Christmas, in which the singer & their true love have a fight & the singer does some spiteful things with the gifts. I don't know who this is by, though. Finally, if you can find the words to it, there's a song called "I am Santa Claus" (I think) to the tune of Ozzy Osbourne's/Black Sabbath's "Iron Man." I believe it's one of Bob Rivers' many twisted Christmas songs. I apologize if I've duplicated anything that's already been mentioned.

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: CapriUni
Date: 28 Jun 02 - 06:21 AM

Okay, since we're roughly six months away from Christmas, What about getting the relatives (or the neighbors, for that matter) to sing when it's not Christmas?

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: GUEST,ET on another computer
Date: 28 Jun 02 - 09:40 AM

I taught renaissance dance for over a decade - and always found people to be a lot more responsive to trying to perform after seeing one done. Seems like it'd carry over to vocals:

Get a cute little kid (nobody refuses cute little kids at Christmas) to give everybody a songsheet - hey, add a candy cane or maybe a santa button - then the M.C./perpetrator gets a pre-arranged group of 2-3 to (enthusiastically) announce "we'd like to sing you a new song-PDQ/old favorite and then you can help us with a few more and get into practice for the holidays" and swing right into it.

PS I agree with you on Frosty/housetop/etc. BORING - and no harmony either, darn it. Elaine the alto.

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: pattyClink
Date: 28 Jun 02 - 04:06 PM

well, geez, this is weird to get refreshed in June, but:

I waited til a 'lull' in the proceedings on Christmas Eve (after everyone's organized, way before time to leave for something) and passed out sheets while people were sitting around. Arbitrarily said, "Constance Marie (names have been changed to protect...), you sing this one with me", and you others will get your turn. We just went around in 2ses and 3ses. The ones who didn't like singing much alternated reading 'the twelve thank you notes'. It was fabulous. And the Baptist lady like it the best.

Last year, similar group, didn't try to do it 'cause i was sick. But the host relatives put a creche out in the woods and set a trail or luminarias out there, and Christmas eve they trailed us out there, singing a carol and read part of a Gospel, and sang another carol, and traied back to the house in the bitter cold night. It was perfect.

Summer? Coupla times I've got them to sing around a beach bonfire after dark, but it's mighty rare.

Subject: RE: Getting the relatives to sing
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Jun 02 - 01:11 AM

NONE of my relatives'd ever sing with me 'cause none of my relatives would ever come anywhere I was singing. Once in a huge great while they might condescend to listen for a verse, but in 5 minutes they were back to their mahjong game and talking loudly over whatever I was trying mightily to show them. ("ONE CRACK!"--or whatever) My instruments were quietly put away...

And then they died.

C'est la vie.

Their loss !

Art Thieme ;~)