When I was little, I was told that I had a great singing voice. Looking back, I’m pretty sure that meant “amarinth, you have a decent (for a kid) sense of rhythm and pitch. Plus, you memorize quickly, so if we give you a solo, you won’t forget the words.” Especially since as I grew older, the only person who kept saying that is my utterly tone-deaf and rhythm impaired (though very loving) father.
Still, it’s one of the compliments that stuck with me. And I still have a decent sense of rhythm and pitch. These days, my church choir is too much of a commitment - so, not with them. I do sing with the congregation. I did belong to a choir for a while, but it folded.
I should look into singing more. I also wish I understood harmony. I can follow someone else who is doing it and I can hear when I’ve totally missed it. But I wish I could figure it out on my own.
Oh, yeah. The best is to sing pop songs, like Avril’s ‘Girlfriend’ in a Tony Bennett / Sammy Davis Jr. style in an attempt to crack up my kids.
I do this so that when they’re teenagers and they want to pretend that they don’t have parents, they’ll remember how totally and completely mortifying I could be and that I have an abnormally high tolerance for embarrassing myself.
Hey snap you snap I don’t like your girlfriend (wink)
Hey snap you snap I think you need a new one.
Yep - I sing with my rock band. I am not the main singer; rather I am the “character voice” when the song requires more sales than real skill - stuff like Love Shack, What I Like About You, Basketcase by Green Day, etc. I just love to sing so even though I’m not great, I guess my enthusiasm puts me over the line. People dance which is what really matters…
Being able to sing solo in an unembarrassed way - even knowing I’m not all that great - has served me well in life. It builds confidence and reminds how I don’t have to care what other folks think.
Yep, I was a chior dork in middle school, I’ll sing with the congregation when I go to church, I’ll do Kareoke (SOBER!) and sometimes I’ll sing in public just to entertain myself… Am I any good? well, probably not, but if anyone is curious I’ll can post a link to a demo. If not, I’ll let it die in obscurity…
I worship lead at church, and also sing at the open mike night at our local pub.
I grew up thinking that I could not sing in tune - a consequence of being a late addition to a very musical family. Once I started playing guitar in my teens, though, I did improve. I’m not great (I certainly don’t much like the sound of my own recorded voice, but with a bit of EQ and reverb it smooths out ok), but people seem to enjoy what I do. And that is mostly enthusiasm - if you have fun and enjoy what you are doing, you can generally carry people along. And if they are singing along with you (like at church), they don’t hear you much anyhow.
I am planning to join a local community choir once summer finishes. Should be fun and will build some rigor into my singing. I am good at picking vocal ornamentation, though (echos, harmonies etc). Sometimes I can hit them myself, sometimes I demo what I want to another singer who can do it much better than I.
I’ve seen priests say “you know, folks, I’d really appreciate it if some of you would sing along with me, it’s not like you’ll do worse than I do!” Oh, c’mon, Father José, you mean you don’t have a second job reocrding operas? Really? Gee, never would have figured, you manage to sing Adeste Fideles off-key…
I do sing in church, around campfires, and so forth. I don’t usually sing Happy Birthday because damnit, people manage to make it sound like it’s Happy Funeral. It’s like they’re so obligated to sing it that they’re trying their damnedest to sound like they aren’t singing.
I love to sing, but not by myself. I sing in a Sweet Adelines (women’s barbershop) chorus, and I’ll sing along when others are singing in a church, in a group karaoke, or whatever, but I don’t do solos. That’s just like public speaking, and I don’t do that, either.
I sing when the kids are in the car. Beyond that, I guess I’m willing enough to sing, but it’s not appropriate. I don’t go to church or karaoke bars, and I know it can be irritating to just sing while you’re walking around a store or something.
Yes–veteran of several church choirs and school choirs, sing happily in church–so long as the song has a tune I recognize (Some contemporary praise choruses seem to lack tunes–I don’t like them).
I have ten years of choir training, having attended a school where music was an obligatory subject. My singing voice isn’t traditionally “pretty” and I was very self-conscious about it (imagine being a raspy contralto in a room full of smooth sopranos). I was expected to conform to the norm of good singing, which meant trying to adapt to an ideal I couldn’t reach. My teachers weren’t very understanding. One of them utterly psyched me out to the point where I burst into tears.
So… I’ve been conditioned to believe I have an ugly voice. No-one’s really told me otherwise since school, either. I don’t sing in public.
I’ve never had lessons, but I’ve got a decent singing voice, I think, and a bit of range. I sing in public. In fact, I sing a capella, solo or in harmony with my nephew and my nephew-in-law. I’ve been known to sing everything from sea shanties to Gregorian chants to rock.
Last year at the nearby Ren Faire, I was singing to myself to pass the time while waiting for my family to catch up, and I attracted a small audience. (I wouldn’t take their money, since I wasn’t a Faire performer–instead, I directed them to one of my favorite singers, who performs the same type of songs I was singing, only better.)
At least I’m not so bad that people run away, screaming to drown me out.
I sing shapenote music, a four-part a cappella American folk hymn tradition also known as Sacred Harp. It’s participatory and not for performance – no audience, we just sing with each other – and you don’t have to have a trained voice or, for that matter, be able to read music or sing on key (though these skills certainly help). Everyone’s welcome. The more experienced singers help the less experienced learn what to do – somehow it all works out. It’s fun to go to other cities with shapenote singing communities and discover you have a common language.
In college I used to sing for a rock band with a pretty fair following and I still enjoy singing from time to time. I got taken to a karaoke bar last weekend and sang Audioslave’s “Like a Stone.” The crowd liked it.
Because I’m a bad singer, I know I’m a bad singer, people tell me I’m a bad singer, and when I sing with other people around (e.g. joining in at Christmas by singing Christmas carols along with the stereo) people ask me to please stop. When I was a kid in Catholic grade school the nun in music class told me that during the end-of-year concert I could stand with the other kids and move my lips but I shouldn’t make a sound. So there!
I am a singer. It’s part of my definition of myself. I had some classical training in high school (private lessons), was in my high school and college choirs, have performed in several musicals, have been the soloist and/or cantor at weddings and funerals, and have sung lead in a couple of bands. I can, objectively, sing well. And it’s my favorite thing to do.
That said:
Singing is not fun for everyone. In any church there will be congregation members who sing there but nowhere else, both to worship and because they worry less about being judged, but there are plenty of people who find no pleasure at all in singing. Leave those folks alone!
I’ve sung in the church choir for a number of years, with the occasional solo if it’s in my range (I’m a baritone; it can’t get too high or too low). If I’m in the congregation I’ll certainly sing out on the hymns.
I’ve only done karaoke once or twice, because I just can’t get over the “cheese” factor. There’s just something uncomfortable about singing along to a pre-recorded “band.”
I will, however, do Live Band Karaoke. That’s a whole 'nother ball game. You get to fulfill your latent desire to be a rock star, all while safely in the company of lots of other drunken wanna-bes who can’t sing any better than you (except for the occasional really, really good performer, but they’re the outliers).
Well, my wife is Korean so if I didn’t sing karaoke it would be grounds for divorce.
I actually enjoy it. Whenever we hang out with other couples, out comes the karaoke machine. *Everyone * we know has a karaoke machine. I don’t have much range but I do pretty well for those that fit.
I had a date once who wanted to hear me sing, so she took me to a live band “punk rock karaoke.” I did the Stooges “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and the Misfits “Where Eagles Dare.” It was ridiculously fun, way better than regular karaoke. My date was thrilled and I got some free beers.
I love to Christmas Carol, so I will do that in public, but there are few places I go where singing is part of the venue. I don’t go to church. The closest I’ve ever had to a compliment on my voice was someone telling that I had a nice, but untrained singing voice…
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