Saturday, August 04, 2007

just a small town girl

I fail at karaoke.

Seriously. My throat feels shredded right now. I don't know how people do this regularly. I am a choral singer, damnit. I do not belt. I was never meant to belt. I learned good vocal technique at such an early age that I actually had to have belting broken down and explained to me for my sophomore year high school musical. I found it so weirdly foreign--the musical director told me to say a vowel, then to use that same "voice" and extend the noise of the vowel, as though I were singing it, and it was SO HARD and sounded so awkward. I never really got comfortable with it then, and I'm still not very comfortable with it now. I have a very, very small belting range and not a lot of nuance.

But in a noisy karaoke bar? YOU HAVE TO SCREAM TO BE HEARD. So I SCREAMED. And now I hurt, oh, lord, I hurt. And because I am a worry-wart, I can feel the nodes and polyps forming this very moment. Blip. Blip. Blip.

Well, maybe not. I'm drinking water and telling myself that one night of SCREAMING won't really ruin my vocal cords. But it just sucks that there isn't, like, choral-karaoke bar. Where you get together and sing Mozart's Requiem or Handel's Messiah and rock out to the fugues and take turns being the soloists. I like that idea.

And my voice might be tired afterward, but at least it wouldn't HURT. OW.

It's such bitter irony--I love pop music, but I was never meant to perform it in front of an audience, I suppose. Sigh. Anyway. More soon. It's late, I'm tired, and there're at least three more glasses of water with my name on them. Ow ow ow ow ow.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

you definitely need to come next time we do karaoke in a private room. no screaming necessary!

also, choral karaoke? sign me up.

trunger said...

next year, in between craming for the BAR, you should sing madrigals with me and Julie. granted we'd have to fight each other for the Soprano I part...but we could take turns...maybe....

Anonymous said...

btw...

LIVIN' ON THE BOULEVARD!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh, God, I *love* this song, especially when thy lyrics are sung by amateurs. But I *hate* baseball cards...

Anonymous said...

I gotta ask... what did you sing?

Anonymous said...

I'm going off the assumption that your title is a clue to your song selection. If that's the case, OUCH! Steve Perry's voice is inimitable... no wonder you hurt!

I also can't do karaoke, but mine is from absolute stage fright. If I ever get drunk enough, my song is Jessie's Girl. :-)