Yesterday my friend Rob introduced me to a new band. I’m a big music fan and I love to learn about new groups, and Rob said that something told him I would really like this one. They are called Imagine Dragons and are originally from Utah. They are now living and making music in Las Vegas and they are starting to blow up.
When I heard the song “On Top of the World” from their Continued Silence EP I instantly liked them. It might be because they use both hand claps and whistling in that song. If some musician asked me how to write a song that I would love I would say that a nearly sure-fire way would be to include hand claps and whistling.
I think it comes, in part, from the participatory feel both whistling and hand claps afford a listener like me. I’m not a great singer (unless I’m driving in my car) and I don’t play guitar, bass, or drums (unless you count me occasionally using my steering wheel as a bongo while I’m singing. What? It’s totally safe). I can, however, clap my hands, and doing so along with a song like “On Top of the World" takes me from a mere listener to an active participant. For a whistler like me, whistling kicks that participation up a notch because there’s now a tune.
Several years ago I was in Memphis for a long weekend. My friends and I went to a club to hear some local musicians. One of the old blues guys playing that night started up “Dock of the Bay” which is one of my favorite songs. I was singing along and enjoying his rendition. The only problem was the guys could not whistle - possibly because he only had a handful of teeth. He saw me whistling along and called me up on stage so that I could whistle in his stead.
I’ll admit that I felt like a rock star, especially at the end when he said, “give it up for Trish. She just whistled her ass off!” My name is not Trish, or anything even close to Trish. I have no idea why he called me that since he never asked my name, but at that moment I was Trish and I was in a band. It was awesome!
Whistling and hand capping create a connection between the music and listener without requiring any musical training. They also tend to be found in upbeat songs, like Imagine Dragons’ “On Top of the World” which make me want to whistle that happy tune.
Don’t believe me? Check out Imagine Dragons for yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment