{"id":2718,"date":"2010-04-29T00:40:17","date_gmt":"2010-04-29T04:40:17","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-01-10T17:05:51","modified_gmt":"2011-01-10T21:05:51","slug":"things-singers-do-during-long-solos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/things-singers-do-during-long-solos\/","title":{"rendered":"Things Singers Do During Long Solos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lscyYdgIsb8?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s nothing dramatic, but check out <strong>Blood, Sweat &amp; Tears<\/strong>&#8216; replacement singer (did you know someone replace the fantastically bad David Clayton Thomas, who was a replacement singer himself?) during the solos in this cover of <strong>Traffic<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;Empty Pages.&#8221; The solo starts at <strong>1:43<\/strong>, and you&#8217;ll catch the replacement singer doing the <strong>Half-Hearted Blinded by da Blooz<\/strong> move at the <strong>2:06 mark<\/strong>. This pedestrian move is commonly employed by lead singers during instrumental breaks. It involves some pseudo-blind man head bobbing and swaying that quickly degenerates into the posture of a dude following a humorous conversation around a keg. If I were ever a lead singer without a guitar to holster, I fear I&#8217;d resort to some lame move like this one.<\/p>\n<p>Typically the singer has at least three responsibilities to uphold during instrumental breaks: 1) direct the audience toward the soloist; 2) offer support and encouragement to the soloist, thereby actually cueing the audience to applaud the singer&#8217;s re-entry in the song; and 3) stay the hell out of the way of the musicians and their chords and effects boxes!<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s fascinating to watch a singer who knows how to make something distinctive of those long instrumental breaks. <strong>David Thomas<\/strong> of Pere Ubu has been known to employ the age-old <strong>Hat Wave<\/strong> technique to cool off his soloing guitarist&#8217;s axe. A little touch of the singer&#8217;s showmanship goes a long way during a long instrumental break.<\/p>\n<p>Xql99I1VSdI]<br \/>\nWhen I saw Yes, tiny <strong>Jon Anderson<\/strong> had to fill long stretches doing nothing more than banging an inaudible tambourine and letting his dashiki flow to the music. His movements are extremely awkward but sincere, as you&#8217;ll see in the background of the instrumental break in &#8220;Roundabout&#8221; (beginning at the <strong>5:27 mark<\/strong>). Devoid of drama, the <strong>Anderson<\/strong>, as I&#8217;ll call this move, projects confidence and keeps the singer front-and-center, commanding his band through challenging instrumental passages. It&#8217;s a subtly effective approach.<\/p>\n<p>So what things that singers do during long solos impress you? For future discussions, is there a term that can be given to these moves? Beside the three I listed, what other responsibilities might a singer have during his musical breaks? What moves should a singer <em>avoid<\/em> during instrumental breaks?<\/p>\n<p><em>I look forward to your thoughts.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s nothing dramatic, but check out Blood, Sweat &amp; Tears&#8216; replacement singer (did you know someone replace the fantastically bad David Clayton Thomas, who was a replacement singer himself?) during the solos in this cover of Traffic&#8216;s &#8220;Empty Pages.&#8221; The solo starts at 1:43, and you&#8217;ll catch the replacement singer doing the Half-Hearted Blinded by <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/things-singers-do-during-long-solos\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}