Vocalist.org archive


From:  Steve Fosdick <fozzy@p...>
Date:  Wed Nov 20, 2002  12:26 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] amplification

On Mon, 18 Nov 2002 17:45:23 -0500
Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...> wrote:

> ...Going back a ways
> - I can hear the sound of Madonna's HUGE hit, "Like a
> Virgin" in my head. But I can't sing it. It's not a tune.

You've intrigued me on this one. I can hear one little snippet of this
song in my head and tried singing it to myself just now. I also tried
to play a small part of it on the keyboard (one fingered) and I've came
up with these notes.

Like a virin
G A C A

Touched for the very first time
d d d d d g e

Like a vir-er-er-er-gin
G A C A G A E

Where the litte 'g' and 'e' are an octave above the big 'G' and 'E'
respectively.

Is this an issue with tone rather than pitch? Sometimes I can hear a
note but somehow not able able to think it into my voice, if you know
what I mean.

> My high-school Junior nephew - a very intelligent young man
> who plays several wind instruments in his high school band -
> was not ashamed to tell me he can't carry a tune (Of course
> I told him he was wrong, he just hadn't learned how to with
> his new voice.) It's definitely NOT the genes. Something's
> wrong with this picture.

I get the impression that boys have a harder time in this regard that
girls do. At primary school it seems quite acceptable for the kids to
sing bady, even out of tune though hopefully with practice many of the
learn to sing better. By the time boys voices change singing badly is
definitely not cool so they are discouraged from any kind practice that
would go some way towards addressing the problem. Then comes the phase
where as long as you're drunk and the song is about football (soccer)
then all is OK.

Steve.



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