TUTORIAL 4: ASSASSINS Hello again - I m Nigel and today we re reaching another exciting point in the story of Macbeth. It s about hit-men - yes, it s the Assassins song... As you heard in our musical opening there, the song takes the form of a rap. So if you like to rap when you sing today s your chance to shine! Before we start on the rap, let s learn the chorus which follows every verse. Here it is. I think we can sing that right away. Join in this time. One of our assassins will help count you in. 1, 2, 3, 4... Good - well you ll get plenty of opportunities to sing that so let s go straight on to the first verse. Here it is. 1
There are a lot of words there and if you d like to you can even give them a go in a Cockney accent - just like they talk in Eastenders! But we need to learn the lines first so this is how we ll do them. I ll say the first line and you be ready to come in straight after me singing with our vocalist. And we ll go straight on to the second line and do the same again. This time I ll say the first two lines and you come in with both lines right after I say them with the vocalist - okay? Now, let s do line 3, in turn, in the same way, then line 4. I ll go first on each line. It s really Important to accent - that is emphasise - the important words. Words like answer and prayer and the word we at we was never there. Right - now let s put those lines together, with the accents. After you hear me on lines 3 and 4, you join in as before... 2
Now that we ve learned each line, we ll go through all four lines, but to communicate you really have to make sure your words are clear. A good way to do that is to speak in a whisper. So let s do all four lines, in a whisper...a Cockney whisper if you like! Here we go. I hope you managed to whisper your words together in the correct rhythm. Let s try it again but this time at a normal volume and we ll go on to sing the chorus we learned earlier... Okay - we ll learn Verse 2. Just listen first as I say the words to all four lines. And if anybody wants to know we was never there. Verse 2 is a little trickier to fit in all the words - especially at the beginning! So I ll say them first again, then you repeat straight away without any break. Ready? 3
Good - let s do the next two lines now. I ll do line 3, then you copy straight away as before, then I ll do line 4 and again you repeat it. Here we go. Now, let s put those two lines together, after I do them first. Good! Well that s Verse 2 nearly cracked so if you d like to take a break to catch up with the story now is a good time to do it. Otherwise keep listening. Let s carry on by putting the whole of Verse 2 together but we ll do it slightly differently. In your two groups and in turn. So I hope everyone already knows what group they re in. Ready? I ll give Group 1 a count of 3, 4 and off we go. 3, 4: Let s switch round. Group 2 this time - after you hear my count in. Ready? 3, 4: 4
Now try it as a whole class right through Verse 2 and let s sing our chorus again. Ready? 3, 4: Before we go on to learn the last verse of the rap, let s try something with Verse 1 to see how well you re managing the words. I ll say the words first to remind you how they go. Now it s your turn to say the words, but let s clap them at the same time. The words go by quite quickly so keep your hands loose and use one hand to quietly tap the palm of the other. Ready? Finally, this time, don t say the words at all hear them in your head but clap them instead. OK I think you re ready to listen to Verse 3 now. 5
There s method in our madness, a certain savoir-faire Ok, to learn this verse, I ll do line 1 followed by you straight away with our vocalist as we did before...and then the same with the second line. Okay, line 1 coming up. Here we go! Now, let s join these two lines together - I ll go first. Right - on to lines 3 and 4 now. I ll do line 3, then you join in straight after again, and then I ll do line 4 with you repeating. There s method in our madness, a certain savoir faire There s method in our madness, a certain savoir faire Good. Let s join these lines together - so, I ll say both lines and you repeat them as soon as I finish. There s method in our madness, a certain savoir-faire There s method in our madness, a certain savoir-faire 6
And now the whole of Verse 3. If you look carefully at the words you ll see that some of them have been underlined. In rap it s important to accent the important words and in this rap the words to accent are the ones that are underlined. So as we go through Verse 3 see if you can emphasise those words. Wait for a count of 3, 4. Here we go. 3, 4: There s method in our madness, a certain savoir faire OK, I think you re ready so sing the Assassins rap all the way through now, with either the full vocal version of the song or just the backing track if you re feeling really confident. At the very end you have to sing not one but two choruses - so be sure to listen out for that. Make sure you re standing up so that you have lots of energy. Speak clearly, accent all the important words, use the Cockney accent if you d like...and don t forget to have fun! Bye for now! 7