July ThirdFest Continues: How To Sing The Star-Spangled Banner

July 3rd, 2006 at 9:26 am · DrHGuy · 1 Comment

The proper but unwieldy title of this post is actually

How To Sing The Star-Spangled Banner Without Humiliating Yourself Even Though You Can’t Sing Worth A Darn

DrHGuy has two advantages pertinent to this topic:

DrHGuy can’t sing worth a darn, & DrHGuy knows it
In medical school, DrHGuy learned an aphorism for regulating medication dosages that serendipitously provides the solution to the major problems of singing The Star-Spangled Banner: Start Low & Go Slow

The Real Problem With Singing The National Anthem Of The United States

While the vocal range required for a proper rendition of Francis Scott Key’s ditty is frequently cited and lamented in the routine indictments of the anthem, I have never been convinced that this was the central problem. Of course, that could have been the consequence of the afore mentioned Advantage #1 — DrHGuy can’t sing worth a darn. A bit of research, however, reveals this complaint to be a quasi-myth. The range is an octave and a fifth, more than is needed for “America the Beautiful,” for example, but, as it turns out, no more extensive than the ranges of “Body and Soul” and “Memories of You.”¹

The trick is starting in the right place

By convention, The Star-Spangled Banner is played in the key of B-flat major. Anyone clever enough to be reading the Heck Of A Guy Blog, however, is too smart to fall for that trick. Unless your hobby is warbling solo performances with The Metropolitan Opera, this is an especially appropriate opportunity to flout the establishment and heed the rebel battle cry:

Start low & go slow

In musicological terms (I’m told), one should start singing “one perfect fifth above your lowest comfortable note and descend by a major triad into the first notes of the song.”² If that’s too technical for you (as it is for me), one can translate it into the somewhat less jargon-laden instruction to “Sing it in G.” Happily for those of us in the musically naïve population who have no idea how one sings in the key of G, B flat, Life, Q, or XXX, one can adequately approximate this method by trial and error.

The essential corollary here is that the trial and error takes place in private and precedes the actual performance if the “without humiliating yourself” criterion is to be met.

Don’t Rush It

It’s an anthem, not the Minute Waltz or The Flight Of The Bumblebee. One receives no extra points for finishing first. My suspicion is that many mutter the lyrics as fast as possible because they are unsure of the words. (See the next section, “Know The Lyrics”) Remember,

Start low & go slow

Know The Lyrics

It’s especially helpful to know the correct lyrics. There is, for instance, no such thing as a “Donserly Light” and, in any case, it wouldn’t be needed at “the dawn’s early light;” “the twilight’s blasphemy” has an undeniably lyrical ring but must yield to “the twilight’s last gleaming;” and, no matter what those nice fans from Atlanta tell you, it’s “the home of the brave” rather than “the home of the Braves.”³

Further, if one desires to transcend beyond “not humiliated” to “terrifying,” I suggest learning all four verses.⁴ As the others strike the final tones of “the home of the brave,” energetically proceed to the next verse, “On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep …” as though you fully expected the entire crowd to be committed to singing every word of our nation’s hymn. I think you’ll find that at this point, a pseudo-apology (e.g., “I’m sorry; I get carried away by my respect for this country”) is effective in implicitly impugning the patriotic integrity of your former friends and does indeed put them in awe of you.

Special Occasions

Be alert to special traditions re even-opening performances of The Star-Spangled Banner.

If, for example, you have been signed to sing the National Anthem before a Blackhawks game, be aware that the fans begin the traditional full voice, high amplitude post-anthem cheering, hooting, hollering, and such a tad early — somewhere around the initial “O” of “O say can you see.” Otherwise, unexpectedly finding ones melodic efforts competing with a the guttural roar of a few thousand Chicago hockey fans could, one supposes, be moderately disorienting.

Useful Links

Tips for singing the National Anthem at ball games & similar occasions
Explanation of reaching high notes of Star-Spangled Banner (via Real Player; free registration required)

Footnotes

If the range proves nonetheless impossible, don’t despair. With a bit of practice and stage presence, one can give an impresive performance of the National Anthem by talking rather than singing it. For inspiration, check out Bob Dylan’s Blues on his Freewheelin album or the Charlie Daniels Band’s rendition of The Devil Went Down to Georgia.↩
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=The%20Star-Spangled%20Banner↩
For a non-exhaustive listing of misunderstandings of the National Anthem’s lyrics, see Am I Right ↩
Lyrics:
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
‘Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave. ↩