North Hadley Hymn “Singing in Isolation” Project
The North Hadley Hymn Singalong Project is a way for us to digitally reinvent congregational singing in this time of isolation. Each week, anyone who’d like to participate can sing along to our hymns, and we’ll incorporate and layer your voices into our “congregational hymns” on our Sunday morning podcast!
Best practices for participating in the Singalong Project:
Each hymn begins with an intro. I play through the hymn once, and you start singing after the pause following that play-through.
Use the words of the image file following the recording. The number of verses (discounting the intro) will line up with that image.
If possible, listen to the music on headphones while singing into your phone– this will minimize the amount you’ll be re-recording the organ accompaniment!
Send Chris White your singing file before 10pm Saturday night so we have time to layer everyone in! His email address is linked at the bottom of the page.
Hymn #1 For Sunday, May 31: Come Holy Spirit Heavenly DoVe
Hymn #2 for Sunday, May 31: Come Down, O Love Divine
Response for Pentecost: Holy Spirit Come to us (Taize)
The recording begins by giving you parts (out of time). Then please get the tempo by listening to the first two measures (the first rotation through the “Spirit Come to Us” material), then come in. I play the whole thing 20 times, so you’ll sing “Holy Spirit Come to Us” nineteen times (since you’re resting for the first one).
Please sing in English! Feel free to riff on your part after the first 8 or so times, but come back to the notated part as we near the end.
Communal Sing: THe Wild Rover
To finish out the first period of this project (and in the spirit of Pentecost), I’d like to do the raucous Irish song “The Wild Rover.” If you can, find some place that you can put your phone several feet away from you, and sing and clap at the top of your lungs! If you want to improvise harmony on the choruses by all means! I’ve attached a few ways to sing along: there’s the melody for verse 1 and the chorus (if you’d like to see the notes), and there’s a recording of just the accompaniment, and one with some voices in it. In these recordings, there are four measures intro, and before each verse; the last chorus occurs twice. But, above all, the important thing here is not to be precise, but to be joyful!
(also, if the tune’s isn’t well known to you, here’s The Dubliners doing it, The High Kings, and the Pogues.
