My singing career began like many fellow singers I know: church. While there wasn't many opportunities for vocal performances in the rural, public schools I attended, church was the opposite. From children's choir to maturing into solo performances as I aged, those with the gift of singing used them at First Baptist Jellico. Looking back, it's quite comical how I was added to the monthly singing rotation without so much as an ask. But, the assumption was you had a gift and you would use your gift to inspire others.
But my last vocal performance of substance (forced karaoke with friends doesn't count) was over 10 years ago. When I moved away for college, the desire to sing just evaporated. Looking back, I believe it was a combination of reasons: a new season of life, a lack of opportunity and simply a desire to remove that level of scrutiny from my life. Let me explain the last two.
First, opportunities to sing are not always easy to track down. I've never wanted to make a career out of singing. Frankly, I don't have the range or the drive to sing necessary to make that a possibility. I can't ever recall wanting to join a band or formal singing group since leaving my hometown. Not that I would oppose the opportunity now, it's just never presented itself. So, what does that leave? Church, of course, which I still enjoy but more from a congregant perspective. But then what? Karaoke? An aside for a moment, people assume if you can sing that you must be phenomenal at karaoke. I'm terrible! The songs are never arranged correctly for us non-sopranos, and I'm what Randy Jackson called every American Idol performer: pitchy.
The second reason to explain is removing this area of scrutiny from my life. Whether we mean to or not, with love or malice and from people who can sing and from those who cannot, we judge vocal performances. Good, bad, too slow, too fast, overwhelming, underwhelming - we all do it. And while my skin is pretty thick normally, I'm very sensitive about my voice. My limited range, my voice that cracks on the high notes, my inability to stave off the affect performance anxiety has on my tone - these are all demons that I let rob me of the joy of singing for far too long.
So even though I went back and forth on adding this item to the list almost one year ago, I'm SO thankful I pushed myself to do this.
Based on my explanation above, I'm sure you can imagine I was trying to go for something more intentional than karaoke for this solo vocal performance before 30 got here. I reached out to my friend Shane who runs a non-profit group called Jazzanooga which as you guessed it from the name promotes jazz through performance and education. A super talented singer and pianist in his own right along with being a crazy busy dude juggling many hats all for the betterment of the Chattanooga community, Shane graciously agreed to met with me a few months ago to sing through some songs and see if he'd like to help. Thankfully, he said yes!
Through a few practices, superb arranging and gentle prodding from Shane, I selected two songs to sing at Chattanooga's annual Park(ing) Day event on September 16th. The concept behind Park(ing) Day is pretty neat: take metered parking spots for the day and morph them into pockets of fun, community interaction. There's a local piano company, Summitt Piano, who always graciously places pianos in the parklets which we were able to commander for the performance.
Originally, I was going to do one song: Brandi Carlile's "What Can I Say," a folksy style pop song that Shane beautifully rearranged to add in a blues, jazz vibe. Getting closer to time, Shane suggested and I begrudgingly agreed that performing a gospel song would be a fitting return to my singing roots. The begrudging was for adding another song to the set. I was terrified about the one.
Thankfully, both songs came out way better than I could have imagined. The arrangements were beautiful, the addition of the second song was absolutely a great decision and I felt like I did the songs justice. Was the performance perfect? Not even close. I was too fast on both songs and completely messed up the lyrics on the last versus of my gospel hymn, but that's okay. I sang. I got back on the horse or microphone if you will and did it. That's a beautiful personal victory for me.
So while you won't ever hear a song of mine on the radio or see my name on a concert ticket, I want to continue to find ways to use the gift of singing because that's what it is - a gift.
A huge THANK YOU to Shane for all of his time and talent that were so freely given. Your encouragement means more than I can ever express.
To end the suspense, here's my first song: What Can I Say
My second song was the gospel classic: Old Rugged Cross
And just to set up the scene, I'm singing outside on a sidewalk, with traffic streaming by and with a lot of pedestrians walking by. It wasn't the most focused singing environment I've ever had, but it was definitely a lot of fun. Turn up the volume on your phone or computer to hear it better.
But my last vocal performance of substance (forced karaoke with friends doesn't count) was over 10 years ago. When I moved away for college, the desire to sing just evaporated. Looking back, I believe it was a combination of reasons: a new season of life, a lack of opportunity and simply a desire to remove that level of scrutiny from my life. Let me explain the last two.
First, opportunities to sing are not always easy to track down. I've never wanted to make a career out of singing. Frankly, I don't have the range or the drive to sing necessary to make that a possibility. I can't ever recall wanting to join a band or formal singing group since leaving my hometown. Not that I would oppose the opportunity now, it's just never presented itself. So, what does that leave? Church, of course, which I still enjoy but more from a congregant perspective. But then what? Karaoke? An aside for a moment, people assume if you can sing that you must be phenomenal at karaoke. I'm terrible! The songs are never arranged correctly for us non-sopranos, and I'm what Randy Jackson called every American Idol performer: pitchy.
The second reason to explain is removing this area of scrutiny from my life. Whether we mean to or not, with love or malice and from people who can sing and from those who cannot, we judge vocal performances. Good, bad, too slow, too fast, overwhelming, underwhelming - we all do it. And while my skin is pretty thick normally, I'm very sensitive about my voice. My limited range, my voice that cracks on the high notes, my inability to stave off the affect performance anxiety has on my tone - these are all demons that I let rob me of the joy of singing for far too long.
So even though I went back and forth on adding this item to the list almost one year ago, I'm SO thankful I pushed myself to do this.
Based on my explanation above, I'm sure you can imagine I was trying to go for something more intentional than karaoke for this solo vocal performance before 30 got here. I reached out to my friend Shane who runs a non-profit group called Jazzanooga which as you guessed it from the name promotes jazz through performance and education. A super talented singer and pianist in his own right along with being a crazy busy dude juggling many hats all for the betterment of the Chattanooga community, Shane graciously agreed to met with me a few months ago to sing through some songs and see if he'd like to help. Thankfully, he said yes!
Through a few practices, superb arranging and gentle prodding from Shane, I selected two songs to sing at Chattanooga's annual Park(ing) Day event on September 16th. The concept behind Park(ing) Day is pretty neat: take metered parking spots for the day and morph them into pockets of fun, community interaction. There's a local piano company, Summitt Piano, who always graciously places pianos in the parklets which we were able to commander for the performance.
Originally, I was going to do one song: Brandi Carlile's "What Can I Say," a folksy style pop song that Shane beautifully rearranged to add in a blues, jazz vibe. Getting closer to time, Shane suggested and I begrudgingly agreed that performing a gospel song would be a fitting return to my singing roots. The begrudging was for adding another song to the set. I was terrified about the one.
Thankfully, both songs came out way better than I could have imagined. The arrangements were beautiful, the addition of the second song was absolutely a great decision and I felt like I did the songs justice. Was the performance perfect? Not even close. I was too fast on both songs and completely messed up the lyrics on the last versus of my gospel hymn, but that's okay. I sang. I got back on the horse or microphone if you will and did it. That's a beautiful personal victory for me.
So while you won't ever hear a song of mine on the radio or see my name on a concert ticket, I want to continue to find ways to use the gift of singing because that's what it is - a gift.
A huge THANK YOU to Shane for all of his time and talent that were so freely given. Your encouragement means more than I can ever express.
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| A big smile post performance! |
To end the suspense, here's my first song: What Can I Say
My second song was the gospel classic: Old Rugged Cross
And just to set up the scene, I'm singing outside on a sidewalk, with traffic streaming by and with a lot of pedestrians walking by. It wasn't the most focused singing environment I've ever had, but it was definitely a lot of fun. Turn up the volume on your phone or computer to hear it better.
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