High Notes

I can’t sing.  Those of you who have read my previous blog post titled “Give Me Middle C” already know this.  And you’ll know that regardless of my lack of singing talent, I sing anyway.

This has never been truer than right now while Wren, our 18-month granddaughter, is living with us temporarily.  I mean, how do you not sing when in the presence of a baby? My children, when they were babies endured it, and now so too does Wren.

But to be fair, singing baby songs doesn’t require that much in terms of vocal skills.  I find that I can passably sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  Emphasis on passably.  Nobody’s buying tickets to attend this concert.

However, Wren’s musical tastes are not limited to baby songs. She is developing an appreciation for an eclectic mix of musical genres, including Rock, Swamp Rock, Ska, Folk, Indie, R&B, Pop, and K-Pop to name a few.

It’s that last one, K-Pop, that drove the point home to me that there are some songs I cannot sing at all and should stop trying to sing them.

One of Wren’s favorite songs these days is “Golden” from the movie K-Pop Demon Hunters.  Have you heard this song?

I don’t know what range this song is sung in, and what notes the artist singing it is hitting, but it’s so high, it’s in the stratosphere.  Think Artemis II launch.  Only higher.

I failed, and continue to fail, miserably trying to sing along with this song.

First, it doesn’t help that I can’t even understand the words.  And I saw the movie too, btw.

I pulled up the lyrics on Spotify as the song was playing to help me sing along better.  First thing I realized that one of the reasons I can’t understand the words is because some of them are in Korean.

However, knowing the words or not knowing the words doesn’t matter, because as I have noted, there are notes that I didn’t even know existed that I can in no way get close to approximating.

I do relatively ok in the beginning, but when it hits the chorus? I squeak out something that is painful even to my own ears. The chorus is Wren’s favorite part too, and she sings along with hand motions on the “up, up, up” part.

I have tried starting out lower, thinking maybe then I can hit those notes.  But no.  I don’t know how low I have to go, maybe Johnny Cash territory I don’t know, but it ain’t happening. No matter how low I have gone, I still can’t seem to get there.

This is not the first time I’ve experienced this.  There have been other artists whose songs, much as I love them, I simply can’t sing them.

Adele, for example.  Rolling in the Deep? Not when she hits those high notes she’s not. I am however left rolling in the deep because I can’t join her.

Whitney Houston is another one.  And I Will Always Love You? Yes, yes I will always love you. But you’ll have to read about it in a letter because I can’t sing it to you in this song.

Cynthia Erivo in Wicked.  Defying Gravity.  The song is supposed to be about when she masters the art of flying and is empowering herself to fight evil. But it could just as easily be a descriptor for what her voice is doing. Another example of notes in the stratosphere. 

So what’s a musically challenged Nonna to do? 

Why, keep singing of course! So far, Wren doesn’t seem to mind the cacophony my singing makes.  And I’ll keep singing to her until the day she does.

And maybe try to steer her towards some Madonna songs which are, vocally speaking, a little more in my wheelhouse (my apologies to Madonna). 

I’ll have Wren Vogue-ing in no time.