Melodious Fail

When we were young, very young, everything was new. Like everything was so new that at one point many of us thought that our feet ought to be in our mouths. We were discovering new things about the world and ourselves every second of every day. As we got older there was less to discover. We had learned a lot about the world and while we may have explored with our bodies a bit more in the later grades of elementary school, for the most part we had a pretty solid grasp of what we were and were not capable of doing. For example, pretty early on we learned if we had any double joints. And we learned the great affinity our bubble gum has for our hair if we allow it to go there.

Well today I learned something new about myself. I thought about doing another musical number for this blog, and this time I was going to try singing and playing a song. But that is really hard for me to do so before I spent too much time on it I wanted to hear what my voice sounded like musically. So I recorded myself karaoking 'Lean On Me' off YouTube first to see what kind of singing voice I have. 'Lean On Me', before you laugh too hard at my selection, is the perfect sing-along song. It's got easy to reach notes, you get to belt it out, and everyone knows it by heart. And what I found out about myself while listening to my recording is that I am completely tone deaf. It is throw-the-people-next-to-me-off bad. The thing is it's impossible for me to tell without the recording. In my head it sounds just fine and on key. So it's not like I can correct the problem. Here's the even worse part though. When I was little, probably third or second grade maybe younger, my Mom had me take singing lessons! Gracious. This is so embarrassing cause I tend to sing very loud at Mass. Now I know why I always get my own pew.

One of the lyrics in Joe Raposo's classic Sing a Song goes 'don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to hear.' But despite his good intentions he may have changed that tune if he had heard me before singing that. No, out of love for my neighbor, I should worry.