I get goose bumps when I listen to Mirella Frenti and Pavarotti sing “O Soaver Fanciulla” from Puccini’s La Boheme; when Mariah Carey belts out “Hero”; more bumps to Whitney Houston’s magical rendition of “I Will Always Love You”; teary eyes from John Lennon’s “Imagine”; dancing feet while Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga swing “The Lady is a Tramp”. Their voices are so controlled and full of soul; and these are just a few of extraordinary singers and songs. Of course I get real happy goose bumps when my wife is singing; but that’s for other reasons.
Singing is based on musical sounds we create with our voices; okay, some can obviously do it much better than others. We use tonality and in some cases rhythm. The deal is that if you can speak you can sing, though the quality of either can of course be questioned in some cases; especially the singing bit.
When you are in the shower doing your rendition of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”, you are using parts of your body you don’t even know you have. Using parts other than fingers (snapping) and toes (tapping), you are engaging your lungs, your larynx where you keep your vocal cords, to reed and vibrate; your chest and head cavities (sounds nasty that way, huh?) your tongue, teeth and luscious lips to get those consonants and vowels out in the correct order, mixed with other non-defined noises or “sounds”, if you are really good at it. So you see, singing is not that simple – really.
There are a lot of things going on while you are making the shower-stall vibrate to the tune of The Hills Are Alive from The Sound of Music pretending to be Julie Andrews racing down the mountain. Of course you can also do it the easy way by singing with your mouth closed, which of course is called humming; and in most cases, I fully support that.
I was pushed into an audition for the Danish Radio’s Boys Choir when I was around 11. My older brother had been singing with them for a few years till his voice broke (and out you go). I can’t remember if I really wanted to do that singing thing, but when I saw the hundreds of boys waiting in line to be auditioned and only 8 were going to be picked, I felt assured I was not going to be one of the chosen; I was terribly wrong.
I have never fancied myself a good singer, not even mediocre. One thing we were constantly told to do was articulating, as in open mouth wide and high and clearly sing every word – kind of acting up a bit much, as well as I thought it looked stupid. But I became the best articulator around, no contest. I articulated, but I didn’t sing, because I didn’t think I was any good at it. Sure, during solos I couldn’t just stand there articulating, but those were the only times I actually sang – for the most.
One time at practice the director who was always in a crappy mood told us that we did not sing very well by screaming: “YOU MUST ARTICULATE. YOU ARE NOT ARTICULATING”, and then he pointed at me, hiding in the back row as usual. “PETER IS THE ONLY ONE WHO ARTICULATES; AND HE IS VERY GOOD AT IT.” I thought that was so cool, until he asked me to step up in front of everybody and sing the first 16 bars of the piece we were practicing – which I had mimed and had therefor not picked up the melody from. I didn’t know the song, so I articulated as if possessed by the Devil and nearly broke my face in the process; I was pretty much doomed – I sang a lot more after that, with continued perfect articulation.
My wife sings at times; she is not big on articulation, but doesn’t have to be. She is not the greatest singer around and she knows it, but she forges ahead anyway and to me, that makes her the best singer ever – giving me goose bumps and all. You see, I know she is utterly happy when she sings. And that’s what we do when we are happy; we break out in song, just like Julie Andrews on the mountainside in Austria. When somebody tells us Fluffy was flattened by an eighteen wheeler, singing is not something we rush into, is it? But we should rush into song, as it has a calming and relaxing effect on us; unfortunately in this case, Fluffy couldn't care less, of course.
Do we really have to sing? Yes we do. I think that overall we enjoy singing – it seriously makes us feel better, no matter how bad or good we are at it. Just so you know, I do not do “Like a Virgin” in the shower, so get that image out of your mind - at once. I depend on the old Pat Boone song “Love Letters in the Sand”. If you are really nice and can suppress any form of giggling during this performance, I will sing it for you; so listen up and watch me articulate:
On a day like today
We passed the time away
Writing love letters in the sand
(Now where the heck did I put that soap-on-a-rope?)
Until next Monday - tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
(I know you are counting the la’s, but they are all there…)
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