Born Tone Deaf in the Land of Song

[snailrind]

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to learn to sing one song in tune. To begin with, I went with the Fleet Foxes' White Winter Hymnal.

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 It's a beautiful and, I thought, simple song. But however many times I sang it, I couldn't get my voice around the line "and I turn round and there you go". Something happens in that line, and I lack the

Comments

Another non-singer

[ext_144110]

Wow- and I thought you were a poet and critic of some species of alternative literature! Good on you for having a go- your parents were a bit cruel- after all, parents are supposed to at least ACCEPT what you do as long as it doesn't kill anyone! The songs are interesting, some seem quite hard for anyone to sing. I can't sing for nuts, but had a similar choir and eisteddfod experience- our song was "Sheep may safely graze", which I still love also (we came second). I have friends (Thomases, of course) who have inherited awesome voices- my friend John's father is a singing teacher even at the age of 82! Enjoy yourself with the newly re-found interest- and writing this blog!

Re: Another non-singer

[snailrind]

My parents do deserve a little sympathy: when I was eight and nine, I sang non-stop, loudly and badly, the same songs over and over and over again. It probably drove them spare. My singing voice has been a family joke for a very long time.

I do sometimes wonder why my father, a talented singer, never took me aside and taught me better technique; but the sense I had from them was that singing either came naturally to you or it didn't. I guess he didn't know he used any technique himself.

[uk_sef]

For me, Cerys Matthews is in the set of people who can't sing very well! But that doesn't seem to matter for rock/pop star celebrity these days. I don't know how much it really mattered for minstrelhood umpteen centuries ago either though. I could just be imagining a golden past in which people were genuinely judged on merit in at least this one activity (because that would still require the audience to be musically competent enough to judge properly).

[snailrind]

I wondered whether someone would say that about Cerys. I nearly put a different vid of the song up, but I tend to prefer her voice and singing to highly-polished versions such as this:

[uk_sef]

Ah, but I don't like the operatic style - on principle, regardless of whether the singer is any good! I prefer plain singers but not defective ones. It's possibly partly a science thing - of aiming for the pure sine wave while everyone else likes the affectations and ornamentations.

Interestingly, that first bit of Calon Lan (in the Cerys version) is rather like On The Banks Of Allan Water, while the second (completely different) section is a famous(?) hymn tune. Whereas, wikipedia claims Calon Lan is almost never used as anything in English.

[snailrind]

Katherine Jenkins is singing it the more usual way; Cerys is adding her own flavour to the song. I love Cerys's accent--it charms me to pieces, and that's why I like to hear her sing.

Could the popular hymn you're thinking of in fact be Calon Lan? It's very distinctive, and is often played in dramas set in Wales and so on.

I'm surprised you don't like the operatic style! I had you pegged as someone who would, and who might even sing in it.

[uk_sef]

The White Winter Hymnal melody is actually a very simple one - moving between adjacent notes in waves which progress upwards rather than jumping. However, its harmonies are very dense and simplistically tracking and quite loud at points. So if you accidentally started following a harmony line you might suddenly get surprised about where the melody had got to.

[snailrind]

Oh! Perhaps that's where I've been going wrong, then...

The Heart-tug

[ext_234282]

Perimpanou really tugged me in the heart, swiped me in the neck when I wasn't looking, knifed me in the groin when I was down. Very grateful to hear this <3
Re the tone-deaf thingie, 1st thing to determine is: Can you hear when a song is in tune or not?

¶ anbudan
¶ அன்புடன்
me
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Re: The Heart-tug

[snailrind]

I don't know. I THINK I can... but can I?

[cornered_ego]

Fleet Foxes. Fun to sing along with at the top of your lungs, whether you can sing or not.