Singing? Why? Lots of Reasons!

I would like to think that all of us, yes, all of us, have sung at some point in our lives. 

Whether it be alone in the car, in the shower, or maybe in front of others in a choir or even some type of vocal group, I am relatively sure that at some point in our lives, we’ve warbled all or parts of a song.

I like to sing and have been a shower and car singer all of my life! 

In elementary school, we had to take choir and I enjoyed that and remember our class signing at a concert at the end of our training. While scary, it was fun to perform and it was easy to get lost in a sea of kids and if I was tone-deaf, I probably wasn’t the only one. 

Interestingly, singing can be traced to at least 800 B.C. and probably we were making some kind of rhythmic noise and maybe clapping back in our caveman days - at least I’d like to think that!

While music, for a lot of us has become a staple in our lives for possibly a variety of reasons, how many of us actually choose to sing? According to the internet, 98% of people can actually be taught to sing well, I don’t think that many choose to learn, practice, and maybe improve.

Why?

I think I know… at least for me I know. 

It is no fun doing something that you may not be very good at. 

And, just as importantly, singing is personal, and in some ways, an intimate act as one can sing about so many things - many of which are rich, powerful, and may carry a tremendous amount of meaning. To even consider doing it in front of others can be akin to public speaking, but in my opinion even worse because it isn’t just talking as we all talk, but to carry a tune…well, that’s another matter. 

Imagine getting up in front of a crowd of people and being painfully off-key.

Hmmm… It puts a lot of us in a dilemma in that we don’t like to be limited by our fears or be unskilled (lousy) at something that we are around as much as we are music. 

So where does that leave us?

Me, despite not being a young pup as I’m presently sixty-two, I decided to go online and pick up a singing course. I’ve actually been at it for almost a month and while I don’t notice much difference in the sound, I feel good about doing what I can to possibly improve my singing. As long as I feel like I might be improving, and that the paint on the walls isn’t peeling off every time I sing, I will continue to work at trying to make my singing more…tolerable? :-)

I like the fact that I am trying to look at things that I enjoy and find value in, and consider doing them in an improved way. 

Does that mean we all need to go take voice/singing lessons?

Of course not.

However… if it was something that you enjoy but are afraid of, isn’t there some part of you that would like to confront that fear? Even if you were to never sing in front of another soul, wouldn’t it be cool to confront the fear and notice that with practice, you actually started sounding better?

I think I might be trying to convince and motivate myself to keep up my singing lessons. 

I will continue to strive to one day not peel paint off the walls due to my singing!