sing your heart out

for the last few years, i've been insecure about my singing voice. i have some musical training from childhood, but my 3 years of taking testosterone completely changed how i sound, including my vocal range, tune, and control. i sound a lot like a stereotypical gay guy, and i have absolutely no control over my falsetto voice- it ends up wobbling uncontrollably and i can't hold a note for long.

but still, i really enjoy singing. i sing along to my favourite songs in the car, whether or not my boyfriend is there- which is a recent development in my confidence. when a song is within my vocal range, i actually sound pretty nice. i'm able to match pitch really easily, and my voice projects well.

last night, i sang into a microphone for the first time in over a decade.

tav asked bob and i if we wanted to go do karaoke at our local arcade, and i was hesitant, but i agreed. when we got there, we got some snacks and drinks (i got a strawberry calpico, naturally) and headed to our room. there were some technical difficulties, but we were eventually able to set up my phone with the karaoke machine, and we picked our songs.

tav mostly picked songs from musicals- and they sounded incredible! they really got into it and it made me really happy to see how they came out of their shell as the songs continued.

bob mostly picked fall out boy songs, which are his favourite! he was a little quiet at first, but really seemed to get into it as the night progressed. i smiled watching him, and we laughed really hard because we found out that, while the song list was missing a lot of my favourite music, of course they had to include "animal crackers in my soup" by shirley temple. what karaoke sesh is complete without it?

when i was searching for a song to sing (i don't know a lot of mainstream music) i couldn't believe my eyes- they had the ending song to my favourite movie!! they actually had "together in electric dreams" by phil oakey!

naturally, i sang it twice. once wasn't enough.

if you'd like to see the disasterous attempt i made to record myself singing, you can view it here. it's genuinely hilarious to watch back- bob didn't know i was using my digicam to record myself, so half the video is just him eating cheese fries. yum!

anyway, i feel like last night was a great exercise in confidence and trying new things. i've always been terrified of karaoke, but even more so now that my voice has dropped from the testosterone. even so, i had an amazing time and i would love to do it again- maybe i could stand to learn a few new songs first, though.