Morning AB, All…..
Yeah I got a story this morning, I can’t resist.
First, thank you AB for doing this thread every Sunday, including this Palm Sunday when I will be singing at the 10am mass….that’s part of my story.
Thank you Bray for sharing your weekly wisdom and thank you yon commenters who really fill my brain with thought.
Okay, the singing story. I promise after this I shall never mention my singing stuff again except I will, no matter how they try to stop me, keep on singing.
Insert wink here.
It began about five years ago if you can believe. I NEVER sing solo….just don’t. Yes I have a nice voice, deep and rich, but I never sing at weddings, keroke and other venues because that’s just not me. Hard to believe I have some modesty, but I do. That and I don’t believe I am that good at it.
So at choir practice one night about five years ago I was asked to sing an alto part for whatever reason. Well this was choir practice. I don’t usually sing solo there either but I sang about two stanzas and there was silence in the room.
Then everybody, one at a time, discussed how beautiful it sounded, this one, that one….about fifteen people. I smiled but thought they were just saying that to be nice. About five years ago and I’ve always wondered what that was all about.
Because I always try to sing soprano and I am nowhere NEAR a soprano, so I settled for Alto. I am pretty good at alto but come on, altos aren’t great singers, right? They’re just put there to deepen the harmony but singing solo? Nope.
Only I’m not an alto OR a soprano….more on this later. See if you can guess.
My vocal range has always been so deep that I’ve honestly am ashamed of it. What woman sings as deep as I do without actually being a man? Serious, I can sing as deep as any bass on the planet and I’ve never been especially proud of it.
Of course the music director always tells me to drop down an octave if need be because once you get above about a G on the treble clef I struggle. I never drop down that octave because then I sound JUST LIKE A MAN!
When I was young my father and I used to at least once a year get together and sing Christmas songs together. One of my more pleasant memories. I SOUNDED EXACTLY LIKE HIM though my father was a very good singer. My beloved husband LOVED for me to sing to him and every Saturday night for ten years we would sit in the basement watching late night shows and husband would have me sing to him all night….at times I had to beg for mercy as bedtime was upon.
Ever since they put me up in that attic called a choir loft I have begun to sing in my true range, which is from the bottom of the bass clef to about the middle of the treble clef and I believe y’all have read my tribble about the choir loft, the congregation below looking up to see who’s doing that singing, the choir director placing me at the front of the balcony jutting over the congregation with speakers in my face, the priest peering from the distant altar to ascertain who’s doing that singing.
Because it does sound beautiful, I don’t know why. The rest of the choir backs me up from behind and for about five masses now I’ve been singing those masses in my REAL vocal range….go to hell. Because I am up high I can sing much louder than I ever could before because not only do I sing like a man, I got the strongest, deepest, loudest voice of anybody I know.
I’m not sure that’s a good thing but evidently when sung from overhead it’s very pleasing to the parishioners. One week I shared with you all how our choir director wrote me an email telling me how much he loves what I call my four note range because I always thought that was my range and joked about it.
Are you ready?
I AM A CONTRALTO!!!!!!!
Because I looked it up and my knees buckled.
Contraltos are female singers with extremely deep vocal ranges and get this….some very famous singers are contraltos, including Adele! Only five percent of the female singers on the planet are Contraltos.
I actually downloaded a song from a singer labelled as contralto, Annie Lennox, if you know her. Indeed she sounds very much like me. And I really do NOT sound like a man, that was all in my head. But I do sound like a woman with a very deep voice. Heh.
Now I drop down that octave and the choir stands back and I pull them right along. I am not at all sure it sounds all that good so I taped me singing in my correct range and listened back.
It DOES sound very pretty.
Go to hell.
I am 65 years old and never knew this.
Anyway….true story. 65 years old and discovering my true voice and that others like it.
I was always so ashamed of singing like a man though husband, also a musician, and choir director, love my singing. I just sang to please them, wanting more than anything to be a soprano but I settled for an alto.
I should be singing with the men and indeed, often I am asked to sing with them….not enough show up, that kind of thing.
Been watching the Trump events and the creeps protesting his events. Looking forward to the shows today and anybody want me to sing them a song…..forget about it.
I don’t do solos and never will.
But from that perch in the choir loft the parishioners all crowd into those back pews to be right under me, the choir director chooses songs in my range…..
God loves me perhaps. It’s been an amusing distraction.
Recording your voice is exactly the way to do it. It’s a great way to rehearse and see if all your notes are strong, or if you need change any of them.
Why in the world would you want to be a shrill pedestrian soprano, when God gave you a full-bodied power voice?...Most of those awesome Gospel-cum-Blues women have incredible vocal horsepower in the lower registers.
(See: Etta James, Koko Taylor)
Now!
Go belt it out woman!
Only I’m not an alto OR a soprano….more on this later. See if you can guess.
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I guessed a countertenor perhaps ... but a contralto makes sense. We had a woman in our church choir some years back who sang with the guys or with the altos, whoever needed voices at that particular time. If one (or more) of the men didn’t show up, she sang with them & if they were ok, she sang with the altos. I always sang with the sopranos, but I’m a low soprano - the really high notes just aren’t there.
Happy Palm Sunday & as my elderly dad says “sing purty!”
Wow! The "Sweet Dream" lady! Do you also sound like Marilyn Manson? He, too, did "Sweet Dreams".
My probable futile attempt at humor! I should stick to singing!
Countertenors are cool, too.