I have always thought myself incapable of this feat, I am a piss poor guitar player to start with, and my voice sounds like a hamster singing through a towel. But at a few points tonight at our jam session, I actually managed to carry a tune while strumming, something I had long thought myself incapable of.
For some reason this thing that comes easy to some, and is accomplished with a lot of practice for most, has always defied me. When I start to sing, I lose all ability to keep time with my strumming, my right hand wants to go along with the lyrics, not the proper meter.
Tonight I did it, the song was Hank Williams Sr.; I'm so lonesome I could cry. I really had no idea what my right hand was doing, my left was easy enough to deal with because changing chords is related to the melody, but my right just kept on going even when I basically stopped paying attention to it.. It helped that the song was simple, and one I can sing, or play separately.
When the song ended, my buddy was looking at me funny. And I just smiled and said "been working on that".
The weird thing is, that seems to have broken down some barrier in my head and for the rest of the night I was trying to sing along with things as best I could, sometimes to the detriment of my playing, but not nearly as much as before.
When all was said and done and everyone went home I asked my girlfriend
if she had a song she would like me to learn. She said "Stand by me":facepalm:
I looked up the lyrics and hummed around till I got the chords. Then I went in right to the deep end and just started playing it. I did it, a few fuckups, but, fuck me, I did it.
So what do you think happened? I have been jamming a lot lately, and in a much more real sense than I usually do, that is to say I am playing with people instead of along with the stereo. Why does something I found almost impossible a while ago seem to be possible now?
C/O
"Maybe it was the Codeine"
Comments
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All the best, CO. Keep at it!
I'm gonna stick at it though, I hope I can learn to sing well.