Saturday, July 28, 2012

Wondering why I can't sing anymore.

I used to be able to sing pretty good, but now I don't seem to be able to.  Oh, I can still sing a little, but it doesn't sound near as good.  Maybe it is because I haven't really sang much in the last 40 years.  When I was young, like way back in high school, I sang in the church choir, I sang in a barbershop quartet, and I sang in a gospel quartet.  I sang tenor in the choir and lead in the quartets.  When I went off to Penn State, one of the first things I did was try out for their meditation chapel choir.  Maybe tenors were hard to find at the time, but after the tryout, I was asked to join the European traveling choir, the highest honer one could have and the members at that time were usually picked from the best of the University main choir who's members were picket from the meditation chapel choir.  I told them that I was honored but could not afford to go to Europe, so they put me in the main choir.  I loved to sing and especially in a choir or a quartet.  Solos were OK, but I much preferred the blending of voices.  I had a much better blending voice than a solo voice.  Now, the only way I sound good is to sing solo so low that I can't be heard.


I still like to sit down, pick up my Ovation guitar, and pick and sing a little.  I guess everyone around my house has gotten used to it.  The dogs don't howl and the wife doesn't stick her fingers in her ears, but they just seem to ignore it and maybe it will go away.  Now, since I can't hear myself from the outside, I really don't know how bad I sound.  Therefore, I have purchased a couple of things that may help.  I got an electronic recorder form Best Buy that I can play back through it or through my computer.  My wife wanted to stop at a yard sale and I found an old portable cassette tape recorder.  Now, I just have to record myself, play it back, and then determine if I should only play and sing when I am all alone or if dogs and people could actually stand to hear it.  You all hum a tune and have a great day, you hear?

10 comments:

  1. Lol, DD. I could never sing a lick, BUT, i played the piano for church for a few years. Can't do that any more either. Totally forgot.

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  2. Could it be a symtom of our aging hearing.

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  3. Trouble, I can only play Chop-sticks and a few chords on he piano. Would like to learn but buying a used guitar was easier and lighter. I can pick up a guiter but not a piano.

    Barney, sounds just as bad with or without my hearing aids.

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  4. The first time I quit smoking was about 1981 (lasted 20 years and then went back to it). I noticed I could sing much better and my voice was clear. I went back to smoking for 5 yrs before I quit the last time, but I didn't get my good voice back. I sound terrible, even to myself, and think it might be an aging thing.

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  5. Gypsy, I quit smoking quite awhile ago, so it must be an age related thing.

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  6. I never could sing before. They didn't let me sing in church. Maybe now that I'm getting a bit older I should take it up. If nothing else, it should keep the wolves away.

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  7. When I was in elementry school I was asked to mouth the words to songs we sang in choir, I couldn't hit a note, never tried to sing again after that.

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  8. Of course it could attract the wolves if you are as bad as you say yu are. They are attracred to things that sound like they are dying (grin). But surely you are not that bad.

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  9. I bet you can still sing Dizzy. Come to the chili cook-off and play around a campfire and if people start to leave then you will know for sure, hehehehe :D

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