I've always fancied myself as a yet-to-be-discovered singer-in-waiting. In my head, I sing fine, and by fine, I don't mean 'alright fine,' but more like 'right on fine!' I mean, I have heard myself sing...and I'm not tone deaf...right? That's what I've always thought. So what if those closest to me hadn't professed their love for my so amazing voice. So? They must have been tone deaf...right?
Because I got tired of waiting around to receive the praise and adoration that I so very much deserved for my personal renditions of my favorite songs, I decided to test out my theory on my own. I was gonna prove to myself that my Madonna voice was just as good as the Queen of Pop, that my bluegrass twang could hang with Dolly, that my soulful, throaty song was perfect enough to soothe JB's ears. Armed with my iPod blaring bluegrass into my ears and the Voice Memo app on the iPhone on record, I belted out my best delivery of Spider John by Sam Bush in the car on the way home from the gym one evening. And the results? What did I learn of my talent?
Well...thank the good lord I was alone. My plan was to keep the iPod plugged in my ears to help me get the tones right. Further, I didn't want any music to mask what I was certain would be heavenly tunes drifting from my vocal cords. When I played back my recording, what I heard coming out of the phone was NOT what my ears had been witness to for most of my singing life. What? How could this be? I kept wondering, "When did my tone break?" It was like listening to one of the worst of the worst contestants on American Idol. All of a sudden, I felt like William Hung. Why did nobody have the decency to put an end to that nonesense? Why has it been allowed to go on for so many years? So many.
All at once, my singing career came crashing down around me. It was done. The cold, hard reality of never being a back-up singer for Lady Gaga was now mine. It is mine. And I now know... I owe a big apology to my friends and family. For all of the misplaced Like a Virgin moments, all the times when I thought I sounded like Garth Brooks in Friends in Low Places, for the Ripple and Ain't Life Grand and all of the other commotion...I am sorry. However, I don't plan on quitting. I just wanted to say sorry.
There is a silver lining, though. My kids, bless their little hearts, still love it when I sing them good night songs and when we turn up Adele and sing her music at the top of our lungs...but I'm pretty sure I can sing like Adele.
Because I got tired of waiting around to receive the praise and adoration that I so very much deserved for my personal renditions of my favorite songs, I decided to test out my theory on my own. I was gonna prove to myself that my Madonna voice was just as good as the Queen of Pop, that my bluegrass twang could hang with Dolly, that my soulful, throaty song was perfect enough to soothe JB's ears. Armed with my iPod blaring bluegrass into my ears and the Voice Memo app on the iPhone on record, I belted out my best delivery of Spider John by Sam Bush in the car on the way home from the gym one evening. And the results? What did I learn of my talent?
Well...thank the good lord I was alone. My plan was to keep the iPod plugged in my ears to help me get the tones right. Further, I didn't want any music to mask what I was certain would be heavenly tunes drifting from my vocal cords. When I played back my recording, what I heard coming out of the phone was NOT what my ears had been witness to for most of my singing life. What? How could this be? I kept wondering, "When did my tone break?" It was like listening to one of the worst of the worst contestants on American Idol. All of a sudden, I felt like William Hung. Why did nobody have the decency to put an end to that nonesense? Why has it been allowed to go on for so many years? So many.
All at once, my singing career came crashing down around me. It was done. The cold, hard reality of never being a back-up singer for Lady Gaga was now mine. It is mine. And I now know... I owe a big apology to my friends and family. For all of the misplaced Like a Virgin moments, all the times when I thought I sounded like Garth Brooks in Friends in Low Places, for the Ripple and Ain't Life Grand and all of the other commotion...I am sorry. However, I don't plan on quitting. I just wanted to say sorry.
There is a silver lining, though. My kids, bless their little hearts, still love it when I sing them good night songs and when we turn up Adele and sing her music at the top of our lungs...but I'm pretty sure I can sing like Adele.
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