# Audience becomes a Choir **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [April 12, 2023, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584 "2023-04-12T14:55:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/1 "2023-04-12T14:55:49Z")
Jacob Collier leads his audience to sing in heavenly harmony. [(1) Jacob Collier - The Audience Choir (Live at O2 Academy Brixton, London) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KsF309XpJo) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/2 "2023-04-12T17:56:07Z")
Reminds me of a video I saw of [Colin Hay (Men At Work) doing “Overkill”.](https://youtu.be/kCZKAxDoUwE?t=35) I had no idea the audience would help out, and now it’s on heavy rotation on my iPod. They (Choir!Choir!Choir!) also [helped David Byrne sing Bowie’s “Heroes”](https://youtu.be/w7HJZPlJn_U?t=56) …beautifully. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/3 "2023-04-12T18:20:05Z")
That was quite pretty. I don’t know this guy, is this his thing? ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/4 "2023-04-12T18:27:00Z")
I remember Bobby McFerrin doing similar things on his 1984 recording “The Voice”. And Freddy Mercury loved doing call and responses with the audience. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/5 "2023-04-12T18:36:52Z")
Ben Folds does something similar when he plays the song “[Not The Same](https://youtu.be/fEkC3M7PVrQ)” in concert. He also has the audience sing the horn part when he plays “[Army](https://youtu.be/51kntT8PgLI)”. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/6 "2023-04-12T18:39:31Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > That was quite pretty. I don’t know this guy, is this his thing? His thing is everything. The guy’s a genius, no question. He didn’t invent the one-man choir thing, but does it way better than anybody else ever: [https://youtu.be/zua831utwMM?t=1](https://youtu.be/zua831utwMM?t=1) Also see e.g. his “‘Overjoyed’ Challenge”, where he sang backing tracks of the Stevie Wonder song for anyone to sing their solo over – hundreds of them on Youtube. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/7 "2023-04-12T18:42:28Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > > [@Sitnam](#): > > > > That was quite pretty. I don’t know this guy, is this his thing? > > His thing is everything. The guy’s a genius, no question. > > He didn’t invent the one-man choir thing, but does it way better than anybody else ever: [https://youtu.be/zua831utwMM?t=1](https://youtu.be/zua831utwMM?t=1) > > Also see e.g. his “‘Overjoyed’ Challenge”, where he sang backing tracks of the Stevie Wonder song for anyone to sing their solo over – hundreds of them on Youtube. The audience seemed willing, is what I am saying. If Slayer did this to a mosh pit in front of them it would be a different sound all together. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/8 "2023-04-12T18:47:50Z")
For sure. The audiences self-select for this sort of thing. See also Bobby McFerrin (as was mentioned above) doing something a little similar with the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria – but that was a master class full of music students: [Bobby McFerrin - Ave Maria - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14LcvpXmb74) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/9 "2023-04-12T18:52:45Z")
Here’s Bobby McFerrin doing a simplified version at a conference of neuroscientists. [Power of the Pentatonic Scale](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjvR9UMQCrg) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/10 "2023-04-12T22:03:32Z")
I’m more than a little impressed that the audience is uniform in moving up or down by the same interval. No “half of them moved up a half-step and the other half went up a full step”. Most musically untrained people don’t distinguish — it’s moving up by “one note” either way (except that it isn’t). ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2023, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/11 "2023-04-13T03:50:54Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I’m more than a little impressed that the audience is uniform in moving up or down by the same interval. No “half of them moved up a half-step and the other half went up a full step”. Most musically untrained people don’t distinguish — it’s moving up by “one note” either way (except that it isn’t). ⁢ A big part of it is that Jacob Collier is one of those musician’s musicians, as in, someone whose concerts are very popular with musicians. So you have a higher number of people who know what they’re doing than usual. And he does at the start actually sing the notes that he wants everyone to sing. It’s only after he’s established the pattern (a major scale, it seems to me) that he just lets people go. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2023, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/12 "2023-04-13T15:36:42Z")
I’m assuming everyone in the audience has passed a quick vocal audition before they’re let in. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2023, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/13 "2023-04-13T16:15:26Z")
I went to a Garth Brooks concert in 1997. At one point his band left the stage, and he played “Unanswered Prayers” alone on a guitar while the stadium of 18,000 people sang the lyrics instead of him. (Well, maybe not the asshole geezer sitting behind me, but most of us sang.) No harmony or anything fancy, but the sheer magnitude was incredible. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2023, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/14 "2023-04-13T17:08:39Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I’m assuming everyone in the audience has passed a quick vocal audition before they’re let in. ⁢ Eh. There are just a lot of people there, and most of them can at least match a pitch. The best singers will tend to sing louder and project more. The worst will likely sing quietly or not at all. They’ll know if they’re off pitch, as I would not expect tone deaf people to enjoy a Jacob Collier concert, as his stuff is all about harmony. There may be some exceptions, but I suspect they’d be drowned out. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2023, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/15 "2023-04-13T19:02:57Z")
I thought this was going to about this :- [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/DJr9rOnP0RM/maxresdefault.jpg "Footage shows moment audience members interrupt Bodyguard show") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJr9rOnP0RM) ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2023, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/16 "2023-04-13T19:37:09Z")
If I’m remembering correctly this is one of the tracks on Garth’s “Double Live” album, which consists of songs recorded during his 1996-1998 concert tour. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/17 "2023-04-14T18:22:29Z")
Chick Corea used to get his audiences to do that, typically ending with, “Okay, now the men _and_ the ladies…” (Audience sings “AHHHH.”) “That’s the chord!” I found a video of him doing that, but it wasn’t the same performance or done as well as what I saw. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2023, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audience-becomes-a-choir/982584/18 "2023-04-14T20:04:40Z")
I saw a very poetic comment on YouTube a while back, something a long the lines of “When a song is no longer yours,” meaning the song has connected with it audience in a way that goes above just being a familiar hit. It might have been on a video of Sam Fender performing “17 Going Under” at Glastonbury, and the crowd singing along not just out of familiarity but out of urgency and identification. A few years ago there was a meme circulating of a video of The National in concert, in which the singer was visibly stunned and moved by the audience almost drowning him out on one of the songs. The look on his face was so wonderful, the “I can’t believe I wrote that, and now I’m hearing this…” joy that almost had him in tears. Live shows can be magic sometimes, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen something so emotional, and I’ve seen a crapton of concerts.