Features on all aspects of karaoke
Opening Song - My First Time
There are several things that can make people nervous about singing at karaokes:- Singing in front of friends and family
- Trying new songs
- Singing in unfamiliar pubs or pubs with good singers
- Not knowing how their voices actually sound
There are others, but those were the ones that discouraged me the most. I had been going to karaokes with my family for a good while before deciding to sing and I would often look through the books and think about songs that I would like to try. Then decide against it. After all, no one laughs at the spectators.
I guess that is a part of who I was, maybe still am in some regards, a person who chose the option with the least risk. I had got through school by not revealing much of who I really was. It doesn't hurt if they hate the mask you wear but what if they dislike the real you? The mask grew heavy though, and that was part of the appeal of karaoke for me, the ending of illusions, giving up caring what people thought.
On the night I first sang I was sitting with my family and a musician friend from university. Sharing the table with us were another family with whom we'd been friends for a long time, and throughout the bar there was a selection of talented singers, two of whom are now KJs, others who would go on to appear on television, and some good karaoke singers. There were also some truly tone-deaf people capable of, if not murdering songs, then at the least GBH. When they sang, I was grateful that the gent's toilets were almost soundproof, and although I respect the right of bad singers to get up at karaokes, I defend my rights to avoid hearing them.
I chose Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Free Bird'. Hey, I thought, at least it is a short song... I put my ticket in and waited with some degree of nerves, and although there was encouragement from the people on my table, the four factors mentioned above were still on my mind. Friends and family there? Check. Good singers in the pub? Check. Trying a new song? Well obviously! But how would my voice sound? Some people were quite surprised when the KJ called out my name, and I can't say I blame them. This painfully quiet guy was getting on stage despite never having shown ANY interest in singing in all the months he had been going there. Were the gents preparing to rush to the toilets? Then the KJ announced the song and described it as one his favourites...
Chuffing great! I still get nervous when I'm told that I'm singing someone's favourite song, and it didn't help back then either! Words less mild than 'Oh damn' ran through my head. I had chosen a fairly obscure seventies rock track and it is a favourite of the KJ. I could picture him saying things like "What an amazing song that was... Until I heard you maul it" (Not really this particular KJ's style but the thought still crossed my mind). How was I feeling by this point? Like they had started serving butterflies in pints and I had downed one.
Well the song started and I coiled the microphone wire around my left hand, a habit I still have, and waited for the lyrics to appear. "If I leave here tomorrow..." hey, I'd hit the first note and I was away. Verse done. Chorus Done. Well that was quite good I thought, that was fun, that was... what the hell is this second verse??? This song only has one blinking verse. Oh crap. Crappity crap-crap-crap. OK, calm down, most verses follow the same melodic structure let's try that... Second verse done. Chorus done. Hoo-blinkin'-ray they're on to the outro. It was finished.
I think there was quite a warm ripple of applause from around the bar, though I'm not sure as I was just thinking of getting back to my table to grab my drink. I did make two mental notes though; listen to an unedited version of a song before trying it at karaoke, and 'Free Bird' is not a short song. Anyway, that was how the violent silence ended. The next week I picked two songs, both went horribly and I very nearly gave up on karaoke. In the end I decided to keep trying different songs in the future, and give up trying U2 instead! Well, there is no point doing the same song ad nauseum, and since my repertoire was precisely one song, I needed to diversify.
So, I kept going and changing and evolving. I am different now, but different violent silences are still to be broken. I'll keep you posted!
Neil. (A.K.A. Violentsilence)
Karaoke Info > Articles :: Opening Song - My First Time