Call and response is a form of musical dialogue where one instrument plays or sings a short phrase and another responds, creating a musical conversation. The answer may repeat or complement the call. Either way, it’s often a playful or soulful style of communication.
Check out this jazz example. Reginald Thomas (piano) and Alvin Atkinson (drums) demonstrate jazz style call and response with Duke Ellington’s “Perdido.” You won’t believe what the drummer can do!
Call and response began as a vocal technique with deep roots across cultures worldwide. Its ancient origins in building community span tribal, religious, and folk traditions. Its global breadth is stunning: West African ceremony, Native American ritual, Caribbean calypso, Cantonese opera, Celtic choral arrangements, Islamic Adhan*, and even the cultural welcoming protocol of the New Zealand Maori.
We may be most familiar with call and response in jazz, gospel, blues, or pop music. Think of B.B. King’s The Thrill is Gone when the guitar responds to his voice with a mournful melody. Or Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline where the audience can’t help but respond with bum, bum, bum.
Call and response is profoundly and quintessentially human. Why?
I believe we all, at some point in our lives, call out. We may call for help in a moment of deep despair, or call out from the rooftops in joyful sharing of great news. Either way, we want to be answered. It’s why crisis centers and hotlines exist, why we gather in celebration at milestone events, and why ghosting is such a devastating experience. No one wants to be ignored.
In daily life, we call out through our goals, our dreams, and our conversations with others. Answers come in the form of life experiences and personal interactions. We may not always like the responses we get. But we can be more aware of what we’re calling out for and, maybe more importantly, how we can answer the calls of others.
That is living as music.
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*Adhan is the Muslim call to prayer. Listeners mostly respond by saying the same words.
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Comments:
Thank you Emma, through out the year you have highlighted so many dimensions to living as music. When I was reading call and response the word synchronicity came to mind. I find when I am focused on a difficult issue in my life, or a creative project, I will 'by chance' meet the right person at the right time and we share a spontaneous conversation that is beneficial to both of us. Sometimes our paths will continue to synchronise, for our mutual benefit, until the situation is worked through. For me it is a light, 'soulful type of communication' and now, thanks to you, I see it as living as music.