Miscellaneous "I can't sing" - course; very nervous

You don't need a great voice to be a good singer. With practice, technique and skill any voice can be made musical.
This is true. Just out of high school 50+ years ago, those about me commented negatively about my singing.

Using my keyboard skills, after getting married, in various small churches over the years, I led singing. By regularly doing this consistently nearly every Sunday, I improved my voice quality bit by bit. Learned to add vibrato. Then sing with feeling.

Now, people compliment me on my singing. But if you had asked anyone that 50 years ago, they'd say, "No way, José."
 
Well. The big night is here.
The other 'arlf has my H2n to record the show... She, of course, is no sound engineer so positioned herself front row, hard right. :confused2:

1000001658.webp
 
Well. The big night is here.
The other 'arlf has my H2n to record the show... She, of course, is no sound engineer so positioned herself front row, hard right. :confused2:

View attachment 27437
The text and translation of your programme (my apologies if I have mistranslated):

Avslutningskonsert i Hospitalskirken 18.11.2024
Closing Concert in Hospitalskirken 18.11.2024

Programrekkefølge:
Programme sequence:

Solo: Thea (O mio babbino Caro - G. Puccini & G. Forzano)
(Oh My Dear Daddy - Italian)

Nybegynnergruppe tirsdag:
Beginner Group Tuesday:

I natt jag drømde (E. McCurdy/C. Vreeswijk)
Last Night I Dreamed (Swedish)
Sommerfuggel i vinterland (Halvdan Sivertsen)
Summer Bird in Winter Land (Norwegian)
Nordnorsk julesalme (Trygve Hoff)
Northern Norwegian Christmas Carol

Duett Thea og Sivert (Lippen schweigen - F. Lehár, V. Léon & Stein)
Duet - Thea & Sivert (Lips Are Silent - German)

Nybegynnergruppe mandag:
Beginner Group Monday:

Vem kan segia (svensk trad., arr. Carl-Bertig Agnestig)
Who Can Sail (Swedish)
Where have all the flowers gone (Pete Seeger)
Hjerteknuser (Kaizers Orchestra)

Heartbreaker (Norwegian)
Stjernesludd (DumDum Boys)
Star nonsense (Norwegian)

Solo Sivert (Nessun Dorma - G. Puccini, G. Adami & B. Simoni)
(Nobody Sleeps - Italian)

Litt øvet:
A little practiced:

California dreamin' (J. Phillips & M. Phillips)
Himmel på jord (J. V. Johannessen & A. Enger)

Heaven on Earth (Swedish)
Hit the road Jack (P. Mayfield)
Imagine (J. Lennon)

Fellesnummer: O helga natt (A. Adam)

Common Number: O Holy Night (Norwegian)

Seems like you had a very nice concert inside that church. 😎
 
Seems like you had a very nice concert inside that church
It was fun. My technophobic partner took some photos, but they're awful.
The recording workedish (too much gain, so clipped a bit), isn't a great listen. Still, to complete this thread


1000001670.webp
 
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Well. Here we go again. Spring 10 weeker. The "little over" group was full and anyway it seemed quite big. And anyway, I'm not averse to sitting at the beginning for a while; so "new bigger" repeat. New song list same exercises and that's fine.

Song list.
- Let it Be. Beatles. Yay an English dialect song. Despite which people insist on singing American dialect "Answer". I'm gonna have to have words.
- Har du Fyr - some kind of North dialect but not too much.
- Tanta til Beate - Wow, Hot Club de Norvège! who knew? ... Django would be delighted... maybe.
- Danse mot vår - is Chanson de Norvège a thing?
- En sång till livet - somehow a cousin of the Cup song "Will you miss me when I'm gone"... the lyrics use ö rather than ø which would be swedish, but seems its still Norwegen. Something weird and southern maybe. I've no idea!

so that's fun. Lyrics handed out, found Chrodpro for everything but the last one... may be the Cup's chords will work?

anyway, no running commentary this time, it's the same course, same exercises... Easter Friends and Family performance in 10 weeks.
 
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Why do saxophone people get embarrassed about their singing, but not their saxophoning?
"Can you sing on that song?", asked a bandmember me.

"Yes I can, but who is going to play sax if I sing", I replyed.

No answer, and I took the silence as I was a better singer than sax player.

Singing and playing saxophone is a good combo. Sing 50% and play the sax 50%.
 
Buried in my posting history, I will have told this before at some point.

In real terms, I didn't do any music until my 30s. Yes, I could read music since I was about 11, I did some music at school, not a lot but it's why I ended up picking up the cello in my 50s. I did music O Level as a voluntary one lunch time a week subject in sixth form.

I never sang, because I had the typical 'not chosen for choir, you can't sing' school experience.

I was exposed due to my then involvement with the church to a lot of choral singing, particularly Renaissance a cappella stuff (I'm an atheist now). I get to my 30s and (ignoring a lot of the reasons why this happened) I started having singing lessons with a teacher.

Soon I was singing in his choir, then I started going to choral workshops and weekends, then summer schools. I joined various other choirs. I've sung everything from small community choirs singing folk songs and arrangements of American Song Book stuff to Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony with the RLPO in the Royal Albert Hall in BBC Prom concert...

So message #1 has to be that we can all sing, but some of us need some help to get there. Some people do pick this stuff up intuitively but many of us don't.

What I don't do is sing solo... I have only recently worked out why I've shied away from it. Essentially, I get a panic attack when exposed as a soloist.

So... in a fit of insanity, I have signed-up to a solo singing element at the music summer school I'm going to this year. I've had to drop playing bari in the wind band to do that. I've also signed up for conducting. I will be playing cello in the string orchestra and orchestra.
 
So... in a fit of insanity, I have signed-up to a solo singing element at the music summer school I'm going to this year. I've had to drop playing bari in the wind band to do that. I've also signed up for conducting. I will be playing cello in the string orchestra and orchestra.
Fantastic!

I think maybe you have, what I think if as, the skydiving approach to risk. (Could be other extreme sports like rock climbing, martial arts full contact etc).

At some point, when looking out the open door of a perfectly good airplane at 12000ft, one reminds of oneself; "I've done the training, rehearsed the sequence, checked and had checked my gear... So this is fine".

Let us know what you learn
 

Similar threads... or are they? Maybe not but they could be worth reading anyway 😀

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