I come across this and it seems like a light hearted thing. But singing actually has a very deep and personal history for me
Because, you see, I couldn't sing for shit when I was a kid. Seriously, I was bad. I was the one that would have been made fun of on American Idol. Not William Hung bad, but I definitely could not carry a tune and my voice was NOT pleasant sounding to anyone around me
Literally, people asked me to stop singing around them. which hurt, to be honest. This is something I was very passionate about, that brings me a lot of comfort and a lot of joy, and I was being asked to silence my joy. Now, I encourage all children to sing with their entire chest, regardless of their ability to control their voices.
Because I never stop singing. Ever. I don't know if it's my ADHD, or whatever. But I am nearly always singing. I'm constantly humming under my breath, I usually have a song going in the back of my mind, and my commutes are either listening to audiobooks or singing along to my favorite playlists. I have playlists of my favorite song to sing, songs that I'm working on learning, and just songs that I know I totally kick ass at. Or sometimes it's just music that I feel like hearing. And even if I'm not very good at singing along with them, I still will. I'm never going to be able to pull off Rob Zombie, but in my car it is Concert Time! 😉 🎶🎤
I am a nanny and I am basically their personal jukebox. The three-year-old particularly has certain songs that he loves to hear me sing. For Christmas a couple weeks ago, I took them to the mall for a Build a Bear with a personalized voice recording including special songs for them. (they sleep with them!)
Because a funny thing happens when you keep at something. Sometimes, you improve. I went from somebody who was silenced and managed to sing Jingle Bells off key to someone who sings karaoke and gets genuine positive feedback. I get request and very occasionally only find out somebody wants to sing with me when my name gets called with theirs 🤣
Like I said, not being able to sing in a way that other people enjoyed never stopped me. And one day I was singing “Part of Your World” (from The Little Mermaid) as I am cleaning out the pool for one of my parents parties. A friend had come over early to help and remarked that I was singing really pretty and asked me to sing louder
At first I thought she was making fun of me. And then it turns out that years and years of singing along to absolutely everything? I was training my voice. My dad, only remembering the horrible voice I had as a child used to make fun of me behind my back for doing karaoke. Until the day that I sang in front of him. He immediately invited my grandma to the bar the next time they had karaoke just so she could hear me ( And let me tell you something, having my 70 something year old VERY sheltered grandma at a dive bar for karaoke was quite the experience 😉)
30 years ago I couldn't sing basic songs, now I can pull off Beautiful by Christina Aguilera. Heartbreaker by Pat Benetar. My voice isn't the best out there, but I can hold my own. ( I have a casual video of me singing on my tik tok by the way. Disclaimer, I was getting over a cold at the time. some notes cracked 🤦🏻♀️. If there's interest, I'm more than happy to upload better ones when I'm not sick. i can do requests 😉)
Because here's the thing. Singing is important to me. Music is part of my soul. For one thing, I was raised by a music teacher.... music and singing is the soundtrack of my childhood.
I'm lucky that I was able to improve to the point where other people enjoy hearing me sing. Because it gives me more opportunities to do what I love.
But even if I lost my ability to sing the way I can now, I would still keep singing
As the incomparable Ms Florence Foster Jenkins once said
"People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing"
(also check out the movie/bio pic Florence Foster Jenkins with Meryl Streep in what I consider to be one of her greatest performances.)