Birthday notes, and tunes, and melodies

I don't sing enough.

I've been listening to Tristan Prettyman and Casey Abrams today for my birthday... singing along at the top of my lungs, feeling so high on life and loving every breath I take on this first day of the 26th year of my life. Every time I catch myself in one of these moments I ask myself why I ever stopped singing and why I never pursued creating an album...

then I remember...

I was a vocal minor in college and destroyed my voice in Gospel Choir. I had a tonsillectomy and rested my voice/throat for a few weeks only to find that I could scarcely sing my second semester of freshmen year. I enrolled in vocal therapy on campus and my first therapist was named Jocelyn. (I intend to name a daughter after her one day.) I learned about the plethora of ways I was incorrectly using my voice... my laugh, my yelling, my pitch, my whole personality was not conducive to healthy vocal chords. I went through three semesters of therapy trying to break habits and learn how to use my voice.

I dropped my minor.

And I began to believe I'd never sing again...

By my junior year, I was studying abroad in Thailand. One of the women in the program brought her guitar and wrote her own music. She inspired me and I worked on a song by Schuyler Fisk with her. We ended up performing it at an International Festival on campus in Chiang Mai. This was the first time I'd performed in public since high school. A flame burned brightly inside me again for three and half long minutes... a flame that had been extinguished for quite some time.

I performed the same song with another guitarist back in Eau Claire during Homecoming of my senior year. Some friends recorded this performance and it is actually somewhere on Facebook. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality... and at my voice.

Since then, I've dabbled in song writing but never completed anything. I've got a bunch of tidbits and melodies in my head, but no piano or guitar playing capability so it's difficult to put together. I've resolved myself to being a local karaoke junkie for now. Look for me at G Allen's, Biology, Ace Bar, the Legion, Blue Line, etc. Lol. Seriously though, I'm going out to the Ace on Thursday night to celebrate my birthday. Feel free to stop in and belt out some tunes with me!