Karaoke Night!

Photo by GrantMe at Morguefile.com

My family has always been musically inclined. The backdrop to all my memories is a soundtrack of country songs sung in the voices of my loved ones. It always made me feel like I was looking at it from the outside. I was the only one in my family that never learned to play an instrument. I never had an ear for music. I loved to sing, but most of the time I stayed away from the “stage” where the music was set up to keep from embarrassing myself. I sang from the sidelines and tried to hide my voice. I could hear everywhere that it was wrong out of key, out of time, out of sync; but I have never been able to fix it.

One day I recorded my family singing on my phone. When I played it back there was a soft voice harmonizing in the background that I didn’t recognize. It was the first time that I had heard my own voice singing with my family from outside myself. The problems that I recognize in my singing when I record myself disappeared within the group. My voice harmonized with the voices that I grew up with. Matched to them in a way that only a lifetime of singing together without thinking about it can explain. It sounded good.

That was the moment I stopped worrying about my pitch and my timing. I have compared myself to people who are amazing for so long I couldn’t see that I wasn’t as bad as I was afraid of being.

A few times we’ve done karaoke and I realize that looking at the words messes me up so much more than just singing, I know the words. I’m learning to just do it and not worry about what people think. Later we are going to go sing Karaoke with some friends and family. I have a list of songs that I catch myself singing along with on the radio that is going to become my karaoke playlist.

What songs do you like singing along with?