I RECORDED SOME STUFF!
And I didn't hate it! lol
To be fair, my life has not been great, health-wise. Currently awaiting some imaging and appointments for rather inconvenient abdominal issues. So that's distressing.
But I still sang!
Much rambling about my voice under the cut 😅 (Warning for intense voice nerdiness)
I was pretty shocked when I got the urge to go record, so I jumped on it even though maybe I should have slept or something instead. But I managed almost an entire HOUR of singing (!!!).
Upon listening to it, it was quite clear I have lost a lot of the flexibility and stamina I used to have. I used to sing for 5-6 hours straight on Sundays for my church gig, in addition to being in community theatre rehearsals several nights a week and teaching music full time. And now my longest stint is 2-3 hours a few times a month at the preschool. To compare the quality required for singing at the church gig and musical theatre (think Mozart and Bach and Sondheim) to the preschool (think Raffi)...it's laughable. No wonder I struggle now!
I did a really mindful warm-up before this recording sesh, too, but it took me 20-30 minutes of singing at full voice to be truly performance-ready. I think part of that was due to being bedridden for a week from this flare up, and in general my body is very slow from all the health stuff, but I know it's a clear sign of lack of use. My issues with shortness of breath are also apparent in some of the recordings, but dammit if I didn't keep singing anyway.
In the end I am not fully satisfied with anything (will I ever be?), but there are quite a few moments that stand out to me as clear improvement, even from just my last posted recording from several months ago. You won't be surprised to hear that Sara Bareilles strikes again with melodies that suit my voice perfectly, so those are the songs that I am most happy with.
If I get around to it, I may splice together some of my favorite bits and pieces from this sesh and post them as a compilation. To my actual surprise, it's my high belt that I'm most pleased with. Some new technique has me SHOOK - singing Celine Dion and Mariah Carey like I kind of know what I'm doing. And on the other end of the spectrum, access to my low range is getting easier and easier, and I'm happy with the tone. I guess it's the middle that needs attention. And to be honest, I think I just need to pick a style and stick with it instead of waffling around in every song.
One really fun thing that happened was when I went to record Olivia Rodrigo's super-hit "Vampire," I channeled the situationship from my early 20s and imagined singing to the asshole who strung me along for years, and it was SO FUN. My voice took on an authentic speech-like quality that felt easy and free. I have a lot of moments that I love from my voice in that, however I was so into it that I lost track of the karaoke backing and so it sounds a bit silly with the timing, so that one may not make it to the compilation lol
Anyway, this got long, but it felt healing to write it all out, so you can have it, too.
Now time for Stardew Valley again lol