Yesterday, I drove up to State College to see the Penn State - Indiana game. Hannah had come home earlier in the week but Nick was still up there, waiting for my arrival. I didn't want to pay for tailgate parking so I decided to drive the Corolla so I could take advantage of Hannah's parking spot outside her building.
I left the house at 6AM. The Corolla doesn't have Sirius XM and I had decided not to take my iPod. That meant I was all alone with nothing but FM radio. Normally, that would be a bad thing as I've grown to hate commercial interruptions. But, yesterday, I decided to make lemonade out of lemons. With all that time in the car by myself, I figured it was my chance to find out once and for all if I can actually sing.
I think that most people -- including me -- think they have good singing voices. But, why do we think that? Have we taken lessons with a voice coach and received positive feedback? Did we try out for the school musical in high school and get the lead role? Have we ever been stopped at a red light with the windows down, belting out the tune on the radio, and had the person in the car next to us yell over "That sounds great!"
I think the answer to all three questions for the vast majority of us is "No." But, that hasn't stopped us from thinking that we really can sing. Take me for example. Give me a couple drinks in a bar with a willing band, and I'll grab the microphone, convinced that everyone else there has been dying to hear my voice. Put me in front of "American Idol" and I'll sing along with the contestants, ending each performance with "This time I mean it -- I really am better than that."
That was what I was thinking yesterday morning when I decided to put things to the test. "Let's see if I really can sing," I said to myself. I tuned to DC-101 and started the experiment. The first song up was "Creep" by Stone Temple Pilots. That seemed like a pretty fair test. Scott Weiland is no Karen Carpenter. He sings in a key that's reasonably close to my comfort zone. There are no vocal gymnastics involved. I felt pretty confident I'd end up confirming that I really can sing.
Now, most of the time when I sing along to a song, I don't really commit to it. I sing softly, switch between alto and tenor, and rely on my falsetto for any high notes. Not this time. I sang loudly, with passion, from start to finish. I picked a key and I stuck with it. And, you know what? I sounded pretty darn bad. It sounded like shouting, with periodic cracks along the way.
It's now been over 24 hours since I realized that I really can't sing. I thought it would feel bad. But, it's actually liberating. The whole rest of the way up to State College, I sang as loudly as I wanted. I didn't care who could see me from the other cars or what I sounded like. I used my falsetto on "Madness" by Muse and didn't feel the least bit guilty. I spoke-sang with Ke$ha on "Die Young" and laughed at myself when the song ended. I growled through "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns N' Roses. I sounded terrible. And I loved it.