Pitched Harmony

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

It was good to see the singing started at last Saturday's football game. One could hardly call it an early start, but it was a much earlier one than has been made in other years. This gives us a chance to overcome a few difficulties which do not occur at football mass meetings.

Last Saturday, when we sang "O'er the Stands", there were at least two different versions of how far the song had advanced, and in what key it was being played. By the time we got to "Fight! fight! fight!" we in the back realized that we were a few measures behind, and considerably off pitch.

In the first place, an introductory chord played by the band is not enough to give most of us the note on which a song begins. In my opinion a few measures of introduction would at least start us in the same key.

Secondly, we have difficulty in deciding just exactly when to begin to sing. One who sits in the back cannot hear the band, hesitates at the start, and finally chimes in with the man next to him. Later on he finds that he and those around him are far behind time. There are two ways of avoiding this. Let the song-leader adopt two perfectly definite gestures, the first one to get us set, and the second to "shoot". A little practice would teach us to recognize these, and to fall in with them instinctively. The second remedy, a simpler one, is to have the cornets turn towards the cheering section, after they had got the start from the song-leader. C. K. LAWRENCE '23 October 23, 1921.