I actually do have an alt-version of the first-half-of-the-chorus, which I think (somewhat accidentally) addresses the first half of these. (At the time the main thing I was trying to fix was making there be enough time to breath sufficiently in the chorus. In the process ran into the same “the phrasings are weirdly clumped together” thing). I may attempt to record a sample when I’m less busy in a few days.
One disagreement I might have with you and Gordon is that I think the difficulty setting for Brighter Than Today should be “medium”, rather than “low” – I think the early songs in the solstice should be very easy to sing (and agree we often fail at that), but that it’s okay to ramp up the difficulty over time, and it is better for the central anthem to make some sacrifices of perfectly easy singability for “interestingness.” (Of course, some people disagree with Brighter Than Today scoring well on “interestingness” or “poetry” either. But, just clarifying what goal I personally think makes sense to shoot for)
The target I had for the music here isn’t “folk songs you can sing perfectly on the first time.” It’s “Christmas Carols”, which are some mix of “pretty singalongable” but also kinda weird and novel and noticably different from many other songs you might sing, which I think is part of what gives them staying power. (Like, in Silent Night, how many syllables is the word “virgin” and could you predict that in advance on your first time through?)
Thanks, this is a pretty helpful breakdown.
I actually do have an alt-version of the first-half-of-the-chorus, which I think (somewhat accidentally) addresses the first half of these. (At the time the main thing I was trying to fix was making there be enough time to breath sufficiently in the chorus. In the process ran into the same “the phrasings are weirdly clumped together” thing). I may attempt to record a sample when I’m less busy in a few days.
One disagreement I might have with you and Gordon is that I think the difficulty setting for Brighter Than Today should be “medium”, rather than “low” – I think the early songs in the solstice should be very easy to sing (and agree we often fail at that), but that it’s okay to ramp up the difficulty over time, and it is better for the central anthem to make some sacrifices of perfectly easy singability for “interestingness.” (Of course, some people disagree with Brighter Than Today scoring well on “interestingness” or “poetry” either. But, just clarifying what goal I personally think makes sense to shoot for)
The target I had for the music here isn’t “folk songs you can sing perfectly on the first time.” It’s “Christmas Carols”, which are some mix of “pretty singalongable” but also kinda weird and novel and noticably different from many other songs you might sing, which I think is part of what gives them staying power. (Like, in Silent Night, how many syllables is the word “virgin” and could you predict that in advance on your first time through?)