Why is this song difficult (for me) to sing?

July 21, 2015 5:43 PM

We use Gillian Welch's "I Dream a Highway" for a car sleepy song for our kids. I can sing along alright, but when I try to sing it by myself (without the song playing) I can't seem to get the tune right...

On the other hand, my kiddo's favorite song is "Little Black Submarine" which seems really really easy to sing (and makes a good lullaby by the by).

I've listened to both of these songs approximately half a billion times, so I feel like it's something more than just memory/exposure. Something seems to make the Welch song harder.

posted by pennypiper to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

is there a particular part where you run into trouble?
posted by bunderful at 5:55 PM on July 21, 2015

Response by poster: Shoot, good question. I don't know for sure. I definitely struggle with the last line of the chorus. Always feel like by the time I get to the "you" I'm screwed.
posted by pennypiper at 6:02 PM on July 21, 2015

Best answer: I love that Gillian Welch song. One thing potentially tripping you up might be the heavy use of melisma, not in the Mariah Carey sense but in the sense of routinely singing more than one note per syllable ("dre-eam a hi-ighway ba-ack to you"); "Little Black Submarine" has more occasional melisma ("wrecking my mi-i-ind") and it tends to be more of an ornamentation than an actual part of the melody. Perhaps a bigger issue is that "I Dream A Highway" has less frequent chord changes than "Little Black Submarine," and is much slower in general. Chord changes kind of act as "signposts" for the melody, so when you have few to go off, that can make remembering the melody harder.
posted by en forme de poire at 6:03 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

On further relistening it might not be that the chord changes are less frequent per unit of text, and more that there are so few different chords in "I Dream A Highway," plus they're often played in drone-y inversions, such that the lowest note you hear on the guitar is actually the same for most of the song. Contrast that with the bassline from "Little Black Submarine," which is much more dynamic.
posted by en forme de poire at 6:13 PM on July 21, 2015

For me trying to sing the first couple of lines, it seems like there's no good place to take a breath. The words seem to blend together, and by the time I get to the end of the second line I'm out of breath.
posted by jferg at 6:24 PM on July 21, 2015

Best answer: The Black Keys song follows a more conventional and expected chord structure (they are essentially a blues band and blues has a pretty predictable chord structure) while the Gillian Welch song doesn't seem to have as predictable a structure so the only way to know where the song is going is to learn it. On my short listen is also sounds like the chords on the guitar aren't as indicitive of the notes the singer will sing. There's a short hand for singers which is when a chord is a B-flat we know the next note should be a note in the B-flat chord. Gillian sort of sounds like she's doodling on the guitar which makes it super hard to follow along. It adds to the wandering quality of the song but like lots of the best songs, it's not easy to sing.

(Pro tip - Renaissance motets are probably the hardest because each part sings their own bit and they have very little in common except key.)
posted by fiercekitten at 7:28 AM on July 22, 2015

Best answer: It could be because there's so much close harmony between Gillian and Dave that it's hard to pick out which line to sing without actually hearing it at the same time?
posted by Occula at 7:57 AM on July 22, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks all! This is really interesting, and it seems like there's a lot going on here, it is a great song :) I'm going to keep trying, slowing myself down more and paying more attention to the melisma and keep listening and trying. But I also think Occula hits on something that seems part of how it feels for me - the vocals and guitar seem more entwined and interdependent than Little Black Submarine, so taking one out (the guitar in this case) leaves the song feeling much more incomplete.
posted by pennypiper at 8:32 AM on July 22, 2015

Best answer: As en forme de poire and fiercekitten pointed out, the guitar playing in Welch's tune sort of obscures the essentially simple chord progression. It might help you to play the basic chords on a piano or guitar (or do a search for "play chords online" if an instrument isn't available), to "fix" the sound of the progression in your memory, making it easier to recall while singing it by yourself.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:53 AM on July 22, 2015

Best answer: Just a thought re the close harmony point. I'm not sure how the voices are recorded, but you could try switch your hifi balance knob to either to the left or the right to hear only one side of the vocal duo (so you're not listening in stereo, nor mono, but just one track of the stereo on one speaker) I remember hearing this for the first time on David Bowie's Space Oddity - I thought I was hearing a new version, but it was just that the balance knob had been fully turned to the right and I only heard the descant or upper harmony part of the track (and the drums). If that works, it might help you learn one voice of the song. When my mother is learning parts for a choir she has a recording of just that one part of the harmony. It seems to work well.
posted by guy72277 at 1:36 AM on July 23, 2015