Do you sing in public?

In My Humble Opinion
61

For the OP, I do sing in public. I was in choir and swing choir in high school, then I sang in choir in college my last two years. And I sing in church whenever I go, which is not very often now days. And there is the “Once More With Feeling” sing alongs at various cons that is a blast to join. Although Sweets’ part in “Through the Fire” can be a bear. I love to sing, and spent the 2 weeks I just spent driving around the western US singing with my CDs, very loudy, and not necessarily very well.

I sing bass, my comfort range is in the area that Trace Adkins and Josh Turner get down to on some of their songs. Although Josh actually sings more of his songs in that range. This can make singing along with Jimmy Buffet or Gloria Estefan a bit of a challenge. My complete lack of spanish can also make Gloria a challenge, but it is still fun.

My speaking voice is higher then my normal singing voice. I have quite a few people not believe me when I said I sang bass because of it. I knew one guy in college that had a bass speaking voice. Very deep, near the bottom of my range. The choir director was very excited to hear it, until he found out that the guy’s entire range was less then an octave. I could actually sing deeper then he could, which was pretty sad.

62

I sing in public all the time. It’s great fun. What I lack in talent I make up for in enthusiasm. I play gigs regularly. I sing at karaoke, sessions and parties.

63

I sing - it used to be as part of my own routines, now it’s in support of maggenkid as she pushes her own boundaries and works her way up the school talent quest. We’re the only parent / child combo that will happily sing *loud *as we walk up the road to school. The rest of them don’t know what they’re missing.

Please notice, at no point did I claim to sing well. :smiley:

64

My husband says he doesn’t enjoy female singing. Boggles the mind, doesn’t it? I only hum around him.

Like Mister Rik, I’ve expanded my range by singing things I “can’t” sing. I figured I could imitate a sound if it was the punchline to a joke, so I “imitated” the sounds I wanted to make until they got better.

65

Sure. At Mass (where I think my husband and I are about two of five people singing), at camp, around the campfire, to my baby. I have a pretty bad voice, and an amusing lack of grasp of proper pitch (so I’m told, by my much more musical husband) but I like doing it. I don’t know if I would sing at Mass if I hadn’t grown up Anglican. Why don’t Catholics sing?

I also dance in public, but I’m a little better at dancing.

66

At a recent outdoor worship service featuring a “choir” made up of anyone who was willing to sing the anthem, the Director asked who the sopranos were. Several people who were willing to sing didn’t know what soprano meant–which just boggled my poor brain. My definition of soprano for that setting was “woman who sings the melody”. It’s sometimes true for more organized church choirs as well.

I call myself a soprano because me lower range is non-existant–and yes, there are plenty of Praise choruses and such which dip just enough below middle C to not be in my comfortable range. Also, I don’t do real well at singing stuff which isn’t the melody, unless it’s pitched higher than the melody. When the circumstances are right, I can sing soprano II, but I only sing alto under duress.

Unfortunately, for the informal gathering I mentioned, the person with the biggest voice was the director, who would sing Alto or maybe even Tenor if she had her druthers, but due to poor song choice by the minister, the sopranos didn’t know the melody well enough to stick together properly, and so she needed to sing melody.

I don’t think our audience cared, though.

67

I do not sing. The few attempts I have “sung” were met with extremely odd looks and requests that I not do that again. I have taken the hint and accepted the fact that I will never be a Rock Star, even to those closest and dearest to me.

Anything with “audience participation” singing, such as church, school, etc, I just mouth the words. Much easier on other peoples ears…

68

Oh, people probably said the same thing to Dylan. :slight_smile:

69

Personally I just love it when a song comes on the radio at work that I totally love to death and some total fucking idiot sings over it while she’s giving me side long looks .

Yep that really works for me I’m sure I’ll be seduced in no time at all.

70

I haven’t “performed” in public for quite a while. I helped pay for the last two years of college by singing and playing guitar in bars. I’ve not played professionally since then.

During the last three years of my mother’s life, SWMBO and I would take her out to dinner on Friday nights. I’d bring along the guitar and we’d go back to her place and I would play and sing for her. The neighbors in the nursing home loved it and it eventually turned into a Friday night party.

71

I usually take the microphone in Rockband. I only subject family and close friends to my uhm… talents though.

One person at work sings a lot though. He’s not very good and in 5 years I’ve only ever heard him sing one line of one song.

“I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day.”

The really strange part is that he doesn’t sing it like the original. It sounds more like he might be performing on a cruise ship.

72

I love to do karaoke with my friends. I am a bad singer. I enjoy it anyhow! I’m generally pretty toasty when I do it.

One of my all-time favorite songs to sing is “Sixteen Tons”. Imagine a skinny gal with wild black hair, red cowboy boots and a bandana belting that.

I also like “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”.

All fun for me, scary for the audience!! :smiley:

73

I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, which has caused me two problems in life. Firstly, it disappointed my grandfather bitterly, because we’re Welsh, and a non-singing Welshman is too terrible a fate to contemplate. Apparently. Secondly, I spend a lot of time in Japan. You might remember where the word “karaoke” comes from.

There is a bar in Tokyo that I go to sometimes (and to which I’ve dragged at least three other Dopers to, one of them on numerous occasions). I have been going to this bar since opening day, and the master* is my ex-boss’ former boss, and who I consider a friend. This bar is a “live-house,” which means that they have a house band that plays from a list of songs that they’ve practiced (mostly classic rock in this case). Patrons can request songs using a form that also allows them to specify whether they’d like to sing or play an instrument. As the aforementioned Dopers can attest, rarely do you hear a bad performance. Some of them are truly amazing. Even the drunk American and Canadian Embassy staff who sometimes hang out there hold there own admirably. There is No Way that I am getting up in front of that crowd and croaking out a song. Ever. No number of bottles of shochu are ever going to change that.

  • In Japan, the master of the bar is the person who runs it. They are often also the owner, but not always (and not in this case).
74

I used to sing in piano bars. I started out in a place that specialized in sing-along, then later I went to another one where a lot of people got the opportunity to solo.

There was one piano player (Bob Parke, RIP) who seemed to have every piece of sheet music ever published, from old obscure stuff from the 30’s to the latest B’way show, and he carried it all with him in 4 enormous sample cases.

My favorite night with Bob at the piano was at the bar that was also my favorite, JJ’s on upper Fillmore. It was a mixed gay-straight clientele, and the music was heavy on the Broadway show tunes. That night Bob played a lot of Sondheim for sing-along, which I enjoyed because I had been listening to a lot of it lately and knew a lot of the songs. Bob always closed with “I’ll be seeing you”, and I’ve never heard the crowd in better voice than that night. It was luscious and lovely, and I didn’t want the night to end.

The next day the bar was closed. No-one knew it was going to happen, except maybe the IRS (the owner had been sniffing all the profits up his nose and owed much back taxes).

Anyway, Bob moved to other venues and I started taking voice from him. He was a talented, kind and generous teacher. And I did a lot of solos every Saturday night, wherever Bob was playing. After Bob died, I worked with another guy, who was a better pianist and singer, but not as good a teacher. I eventually put on 3 or 4 little shows myself, to each of which maybe 10 people came, but they were small venues so that was OK. Once I even sang in the now defunct Plush Room (2 songs, as part of a competition in which I came in dead last).

I stopped doing this maybe 13 years ago; I felt I had gone as far as I could go with the talent I had, and it was getting to be a rut. Also I felt that I would rather be with my sweetie on Saturday nights instead of singing in some bar. It’s funny, now that I think of it, as much singing as I did then, I don’t miss it now. I guess I got it out of my system.
Roddy

75

I remember when I was in grade school there was a boy who talked and sang in a monotone. After hearing him “sing” in church, I offered to sing twice as loud if he would just keep his mouth shut.