I recorded harp first or singing first. I recorded it all together. Part of the reason is that I don’t know how to play the songs without also singing. I forget how they progress. I don’t think that any of them are verse, chorus, verse, and so on. They are not simple.
My idea is to play with the people who you know want to get it right. Then it’s fun and easy to record, and you can get down to details, like taking out cymbals so the verse doesn’t dwarf the chorus, something like that.
I don’t like drums dictating the song; like when you hear a fill and then you know the chorus is coming up.
I think if you go to ‘Strength of the World,’ a song like that, the chorus isn’t that great, but you go into the bridge and other things and the catchier parts and the better melodies we were really focused on.
People in chorus tends to be much more emotional or at least wear their hearts on their sleeve. They are generally the kind to hold hands and cry. It’s just a different personality type.
The pre-chorus always flows and the chorus is always a little bit harder for me because I put pressure on myself. I didn’t know that there was a proper way to do these things, so I just write what sounds good to me in my ears and then I hope to God that someone else likes it too.
The human voice sounds thicker with a chorus and reverb than a dry signal.
The real challenge of writing songs isn’t just writing a bunch of parts – like a verse, chorus, verse – but making something that flows together, that brings you back.
It’s tough hearing your voice on the radio, on a chorus, and knowing that people think it’s another artist.
Dudes I work with have to be like-minded to where I just hand them a beat that has a chorus and they can do with them what they gotta do. If they can’t do that, I usually don’t work with ’em.
The instrumental stuff is a good challenge, and it keeps my fingers athletically tuned, but I’m totally happy to bang away on some chords, sing some harmonies and play some wailing blues solos after the second chorus.
Back in the Stone Age, before there were workshops, it was a very difficult idea to get into musical theatre. Normally, you would be a chorus girl or boy and write something. People would get their start as rehearsal pianists or dance assistants.
I usually sing a lot on my mixtapes. I sing a lot on songs that just really aren’t singles. Even my first single, ‘My Last,’ which I feel like is more pop than anything – I was originally singing the chorus on there. I’m used to that. I’ve always had fresh melodies.
I don’t mind a repetitive chorus; I mind repetitive verse. I mean, it’s the same amount of space. Why would you have only three diamonds if you can have six?
I have always been a sucker for the big, upbeat chorus.
When I was a child, women spoke to me of how all they had was their memories, how their husbands went to war and never came back, so many tragedies. That chorus of voices filled my consciousness. It was part of life itself.
I wrote the chorus specifically for ‘Same Love’ as a narration of my story. I decided to release ‘She Keeps Me Warm’ as an extension of the chorus because I felt like there was more that needed to be said.
I would have to recommend the chorus of ‘Lightning Crashes’ for just about everyone that needs a little something, a little comeback.
Seeing the road show of ‘A Chorus Line’ in 1977 at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Memphis was a life-changing event for me: there were gay people, on the stage, and they all lived in New York.
I love writing songs. One of the toughest things is structure; it just works when you use verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge. And as soon as you become aware of that formula, you start to have a bad conscience when you write with that particular structure.
I’ve always loved the mixture of crushing live drums with a programmed groove, that really cool blend, like in the verse there’s a really funky drum beat that is programmed then it comes in to the chorus; you’ve got that enormous human feel where the band kicks in.
I did everything in high school – I played tennis, I played basketball, I was in chorus, I was in the band, I even did the mascot senior year… I went to the football games, and at half-time I went across the field, met all the cheerleaders and got their numbers! The same year, I won prom king!
The sax solo as we know it today would not exist without Gerry Rafferty. His 1978 soft-rock classic ‘Baker Street’ has to be the ‘Ulysses’ of rock & roll saxophone, giving the entire chorus over to Raphael Ravenscroft’s sax solo, creating one of the Seventies’ most enduringly creepy sounds.
In my own life, I had gone from Maryland State Honors Chorus and writing and singing my own songs to a musical silence. It seemed the busier my work life would get, the less I had to feed the other parts of my own soul, including the arts.
All I had, originally, were pages of Nolan’s dialogue. I think his character serves the story in a nice way. He’s a Greek chorus for the goings-on in the Hamptons.
But the rising chorus urging ESPN to change its stripes is missing something: The intersection of sports and politics is natural. And the left-wing lean of ESPN is inevitable. Conservatives bothered by the slant should stop hand-wringing and start their own network.
Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends.
If you listen to the first, second, and third chorus of a song, they don’t sound the same. It’s the same melody and all that, but what really happens is that the energy changes. It’s all about getting the listener to keep his or her concentration.
Disney features, especially the early ones, were horror movies with cute critters: Greek tragedies with a hummable chorus. Forcing children to confront the loss of home, parent, friends and fondest pets, these films imposed shock therapy on four-year-olds.
Chorus Line’ opened things up a bit. Any show that’s successful does that. But ‘Chorus Line’ was about dancers.
With ‘Love Shack,’ once we put that chorus in, it did have more of a song structure. Even though the verses are all kind of different, the chorus was there along with ‘The Love Shack’ – I think that really made it a hit. Once we heard it in the studio, we played it for R.E.M., and they were like, ‘Yes this is a hit.’
When I first walked into 54 Below, I had this kind of deja vu experience and tried to imagine what this was like back in the day when I would come here at night after doing ‘A Chorus Line.’
When I moved to New York to act I was no good at working restaurants – hosting, waiting, bussing, dishwashing – I wasn’t good at any aspect. But I did have a guitar. So I would sing ‘Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,’ but you would only hear the chorus because the train comes by every 30 seconds.
For the chorus of ‘Secrets,’ we used The Romantics’ ‘Talking in Your Sleep’ and ‘Pale Shelter’ by Tears for Fears. It’s like hip-hop: just grab it.
I went to watch Coldplay in Florida and saw Chris Martin before they went on. He sang ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ before the chorus of ‘Yellow’ kicked in. That was so strange because he’s an inspiration for me. I think he’s so good, he’s sick… he’s a really nice guy too.
I always enjoyed participating in artistic endeavors, and I remember in high school participating in chorus, drama and singing madrigals, mainly because they were an easy A. I loved being in plays and musicals too, but you didn’t really get credit for those.
There’s something about making a song that everybody can sing and remember, and when you listen to it the first time, you already know the words by the second chorus, like you’ve always known the song. I’m obsessed with that idea.
I just wanted to be normal. I wanted to have a normal life. I wanted to have children. And when I was picked out of a chorus line and cast in a TV series, I got anxious, so I took the bull by the horns and went to see a psychologist. And it was the greatest move I ever made.
I loved pop music as a little kid. Things like the Black Eyed Peas. If it had a catchy chorus, I was into it.
Actually, there was another band where we were three girls, around ’84 when I met John Zorn, called Sunset Chorus. It was just bass and drums and guitar- we didn’t make any records but we played a lot of different clubs in New York.
I have a really small puppy, Georgie, and one of my favorite things is to take her to the park and play with her. I take two classes at middle school, math and chorus, and I love walking home with her after school.
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