Chords for Virtual Choir 5: Deep Field - Level 1 - Intro

_ Hey gang, Eric Whitaker here.
You know how I love to mix things up, so this time we're
going to try something a little different for Virtual Choir 5.
What we'll do is we'll
sing just a very simple melody.
I'll teach it to you in just a moment.
The idea being
that we're going to get as many people as possible singing, even those people who have
only a little experience singing or have never sung before.
The piece we'll be performing
this time [Eb] is called Deep Field.
Deep Field is a work that I wrote inspired by the phenomenal
success story of the Hubble Telescope, easily one of the great scientific achievements in
the history of humankind.
The piece itself is 24 minutes long, it's got orchestra at
the beginning, but the choir will come in just at the end, right at the epic climax.
The way I've structured the entire piece, and even the little melody that we'll be singing,
reflects the story of the Hubble Telescope when it was first launched into orbit, moving
from out of focus, back into focus, out of focus, into focus, as they repaired the malfunctioning
telescope.
Now when you sing this, you want to sing it in your natural register.
So if
you have a naturally higher voice, like a soprano or an alto, _ [Gb] you'll sing up in here
in this register.
If you have a naturally lower voice, like a tenor or a bass, you're
going to be [E] singing down here.
[Gb] Remember, nice, [Eb] warm, deep breaths, very relaxed, beautiful
singing.
So first, I'll play for you just the simple melody that we're going to be singing.
It's this easy.
_ [Gb] _ _ [F] _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ [Abm] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _
[Gb] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ [Ebm] _
_ _ [Dbm] That's it, that easy.
And you'll hear there's four little cells there.
We're going to do each cell one at a time.
Ready?
So the first part of the melody, the
first cell, is only three notes long, and these three notes symbolize the challenges
that NASA had with the extraordinary new technology they [E] were working with at the time.
So it'll
sound just like [Bm] this.
Listen once.
_ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
That simple.
Let's do it even a little slower now, on a
pure, perfect [Gb] OO vowel.
Ready?
Here we go.
And.
_ _ _ _ _ [Fm] _
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _ _
The second part of the melody, the second
cell, is again only three notes long, but this time the second note goes up.
I wanted
to paint a sense of aspiration as they tried and tried to achieve, but then fell as they
continued their struggle.
It sounds like this. _ _ _
[Abm] _ _ _ _ _ [Ebm] _ _
Hear that?
Hear how it goes up?
Good.
So now
we'll sing it again on a perfect, pure OO vowel, a little bit slower.
Ready?
And. _ _ _ _
_ _ [Abm] _ _ _ _ _ [Ebm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Db] _
Excellent.
Now the third part of the melody, the third cell, is four notes long, all of them ascending.
_ What we're trying to paint here musically is this climb up the mountain.
We finally
reach that top note, the mountaintop, and this symbolizes NASA finally overcoming all
of the technical issues they were dealing with and the telescope being able to see clearly,
perfectly clearly for the first time.
It sounds [Abm] like this. _ _
_ [Bbm] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [Dbm] _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] Just that.
Ready?
[Ab] So again on an
OO [A] vowel, a little bit slower.
[Abm] Here we go. _ _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [B] _ _ [Em] _
_ _ [Dbm] _ _ _ _ _ [Db]
That simple.
And the final part of the melody,
the last three notes, are exactly the same as the first three notes.
What we've got now
here is a sense of catharsis.
We've taken this journey with NASA.
They've created this
extraordinary thing against all odds, and now the world has changed.
[Ab]
[Gb] It sounds like
this.
_ _ [F] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] That simple.
Ready?
On OO, [Gb] a little bit slower.
_ _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ [Ebm] _ _ _ _ [Abm] _
_ _ _ _ _ I'll be with you all the way.