Rebecca-Anne Withey: 5 things I’ve learned in fifteen years of signing songs

This month heralds a milestone for me as its 15 years since I first starting signing songs. To mark the occasion I put together a ‘greatest hits’ type video (which you can see on my Facebook page Rebecca A Withey) and its been fun looking back at the good, bad, and plain embarrassing signed songs I’ve performed.

Working with music and sign language, I’m aware that I create things a lot differently now. I also feel that as I’ve moved more into song and video production, I have more creative control over the songs I perform. I’ve learnt an awful lot! So I’ve written up 5 things I’ve learnt from 15 years in signed song.

1. First up, guess what? Not everybody likes signed song.
This came as a surprise to me initially as I couldn’t fathom why other deaf folk didn’t like something I absolutely loved. And to go further, some of them downright HATED it so much that I’d see awful comments and political debates about how signed song cannot ever be part of the deaf community. Ouch.

15 years on and I no longer take opinions personally. I understand that just as some hearing people may be tone deaf with no interest in music, the deaf community has the same variation in likes and interests.

Expanding on that, I also appreciate that for deaf people who don’t feel part of music, have never had a relationship with music and perhaps may have been excluded from all things musical growing up, that sign song feels too far removed from their life experience.I also understand that due to the vast majority of signed songs online being performed by hearing BSL students, this can stir up a lot of unhappy debate.

We’re all different in our tastes and opinions, I’ve come to learn. And that’s okay. We can still be friends, right?!

2. Now, I’ll let you into a secret. Sign song is a lot of people’s guilty pleasure.
Yep, I’m talking about you! 😉 When I realised how controversial signed song was, I expected most deaf folk I met to have the same opinion. But what I came to learn was that there are several of you – yes you! – who secretly looooove watching and even performing signed songs yourself.

Not naming names, but I’m talking about real figureheads of the deaf community. Television presenters, sportsmen, comedians, business men, charity leaders. Proper BSL users who have surprised me by admitting they watch videos on repeat or even sign their own songs in the privacy of their room or car!

It seems like a bit of a taboo to admit you like something musical when you’re a BSL user and prominent member of the deaf community. But trust me, you’re not alone.Perhaps you grew up in a hearing family, dabbled in musical stuff at school or even fancied a rock star. Maybe you started reading lyrics and fell in love with the universal themes that music has? Or perhaps you love nothing more than feeling the BOOM BOOM BOOM of the bass in your car when Uptown Funk is on?

Whatever the reason, there is most definitely still a market for signed song. Some deaf people have rhythm in their veins and are naturally musical. These are the ones that will challenge society’s assumptions about deaf people and music.

You’re my tribe, by the way.

3. There is no ONE way to sign a song.
I’ve seen numerous people sign one song, and each of them will always do it differently. Why? Because interpreting lyrics is an individual experience, especially given how ambiguous the English language can be, and therefore one person’s translation will always be different to another.

Another point to make is that the way we sign in everyday life also differs from person to person. We may use more of an SSE approach, or be solely BSL users or sometimes we are mixtures of both.

This affects the way songs are signed as you can either sign lyrics as they are – with signed supported English – or you can delve deeper into what the true meaning is and use BSL.

For example the song ‘This is Me’ from The Greatest Showman has seen soooo many signed renditions. But I always see a different interpretation of the phrase “I’m not a stranger to the dark.” It’s been signed as “You know me, in the dark” and its also been signed literally as “I’m not a stranger – dark is falling.”

However when I think of what that means to me, it translates as “I’m used to being in the dark.”So many options, so many flavours. There’s no right or wrong here, just personal preference.

4. Some songs just aren’t made for signed song.
Over 15 years I’ve realised that what I love most is when you capture the true meaning of a song, and you make it visual – without losing any of the musical elements such as the rhythm or the beat. Some songs have beautiful story like qualities that lend themselves really well to sign language.

The signs then bring the words to life in a way that you’d never previously thought of. I experienced this when I signed “Everybody Knows” by Bob Dylan with the band Gypsy Hill. The haunting lyric “everybody knows that everybody knows that the war is over, everybody knows that the good guys lost…” felt even more powerful when you could literally see the image that the writer was portraying.

Some songs, however, are full of abstract words or concepts that are too complicated to translate enjoyably and get lost when you try to do so. For my first music video with Channel 4’s Vee TV, I decided to sign “Hole in the Head” by the Sugababes.They were a really cool band at the time, and I loved the single. But when I look back at the video now, I cringe.

“Do ya miss me like a hole in the head, because I do boy, and its cool boy…” signed literally just didn’t make sense. I was too full of teenage sass to realise that the song wasn’t a good choice. You live and you learn eh?So song choice is massively important when you sign a song for a video or a public performance.

5. Signed song is both sign language and music personified.
One of the biggest misunderstandings I’ve seen people fall into is that when they sign a song, they focus so much on the BSL structure of the lyrics that the actual song itself is lost.

I’m not keen on watching a signed interpretation of lyrics if I can’t see the rhythm. I don’t enjoy watching lyrical performances where I can’t see a beat. I need the music to come alive in order for it to be a signed song. Without those elements, its just BSL poetry. And as beautiful as that is, its completely different to signed song.

Sign song DOES undoubtedly mean that you work with music. It may take time and effort to fully understand a song, with all its layers and structures. But its this foundation that we build the sign language onto.Whilst some sign singers perform in silence, their lyrical performance will always follow a tempo, with perfectly situated pauses and climaxes to enhance their performance. They use inner rhythm which you can ‘hear’ with your eyes.

From Fletch@ to Caroline Parker, Sign Kid to Colin Thomson, Vilma Jackson to yours truly, we do have a growing group of sign song devotees championing the powerful fusion of sign language and music.

So whether you love sign song or you hate it, the truth is its still around. After 15 years of seeing the changes in this art form, I can only wonder where it’s going to take the deaf community next.