Tiny joys

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 21:21:56 GMT

I have found the correct genre of music to sing along to and gently stretch out my vocal range: sea shanties.

In December I freaked the FUCK out as my voice started breaking: my spoken pitch was about the same, but I *couldn't project* anymore. And I had lost the ability to speak or sing in chest voice; I could SPEAK in head voice, but not sing.

Christmas carols I used to just... know, I could no longer sing along to. And I also couldn't pitch down to project across a room! It was really distressing.

My voice has stabilised - speaking wise it's a little lower than it was, but not drastically. It's a little more resonant, and it's going through another round of sounding like I need to clear my throat - but since I dropped the dose, those phases are less marked.

What's alarming: I might be in danger of becoming a crap baritone. This is a problem: as a crap alto, I could sing along to lower-pitched women's pop songs AND mediocre tenors. As a crap baritone, I can't keep up with a lot of the male voices I *think* I ought to be able to, but also can't transpose them down because I don't have the bass range.

Example:

I was having emotions about the Halifax Explosion the other day, and discovered I ... can't sing along to this anymore. My voice just goes completely silent at "Bound for the fighting"! Not even squeak, I just ... no noise comes out!

So I had to test this on other songs. Of the Longest Johns oevre, the sea shanties are all comfortably in my range - EXCEPT the Wellerman. I *can* sing along to the Wellerman now without having to transpose, but it's still an effort to hit "leave and go" AND some of the higher notes. Some of the comic tracks, like Moby Duck, or Hoist Up That Thing, tangle me - I can't change notes FAST enough.

In the GBS oevre: I cannot keep up with Sean McCann's range. Songs in the English folk style, like Captain Wedderburn, are completely out - which probably explains why most Christmas carols were beyond me.

Alan Doyle's pop-folk lead tracks are either too fast or too high for me, but a lot of the shanties are fine. I think that - with exceptions, like The Wellerman - shanties must be, by design, in the "crap barritone" range, ie, the overlap zone for most standard men's voices; and they don't usually execute feats of vocal sliding, because who has time to be Harry Styles when you're working?

I'm having a lovely time singing along loudly in my flat.

Particularly fun with my current vocal range:

In other news, The Longest Johns are coming to Switzerland THE WEEK AFTER I LEAVE.

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I don't want to talk about it

Sat, 28 May 2022 19:17:35 GMT

( I fucked up on several axes )

I do not have the werewithal to analyse this properly right now.

I can report that today I:

- sorted my budget
- talked to Shiny
- napped
- made tray-bake chicken AND endive and peach and spinach salad
- put some plants in the plant stand friend G and I assembled last weekend.

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Strong Verbs Are Just Better

Tiny joys

I don't want to talk about it