My Internet Debut! (Don't worry, it's not what you think!)

I never thought I'd do this, but here goes everything. I'm going to sing for you. I haven't ever sung to anyone except my kids, at least not directly. I did sing a few solos in high school choir, but only in class (not for a concert or anything) and I was always so nervous that I'm sure it was not a pleasant experience for anyone involved. I never tried out for any solos because I couldn't sing well in front of people. I was afraid of humiliating myself by giving my all in the audition, then inevitably inserting a glottal attack (I should demonstrate, but I won't this time), plus most of the solos required a jazz technique called scatting, which is basically singing gibberish (doobazow-be-voo-huh-deeeee-huh-zoomazoom-dip-doo-dit-bow!) , and I refused to do it, even in the privacy of my own shower. I left all scatting to the pros.

Anyway, for the past several weeks I've had this singing blog post on my internal list of things to maybe get around to. It's not something I necessarily feel comfortable doing, but then again, lately I've been wanting more and more to do things that aren't exactly expected from me. ;) I am naturally quite self-conscious, and in the not so distant past I likely wouldn't have been able to muster the courage ( or stupidity?) to follow through with self inflicted dares like this, but yesterday I realized something. I can sing to the camera without getting nervous. At all. Even though I knew why I was recording my warbling self. If anyone had been in the room it would have been Nerves City!

I got the idea to post myself singing from my current favorite TV show,"Glee", but it took me a while to think of what song to pick. I was planning to do it a few days before the Glee concert in honor of Rachel Berry, who has been known on the show to post videos of herself on YouTube, singing her heart out (phenomenally, I might add), only to have all the cool kids gather to watch her online performances, laughing and making fun of her. I am in no way comparing myself to her, of course, but she was the initial inspiration for my madness. I ran out of time prior to the concert, then after I returned, life got busy and my little idea sat on the back burner. Then, a couple of weeks ago (on "Glee"), Artie sang one of my favorite songs in the world, "Dream a Little Dream of Me". I have always loved that song. Most of it's in my vocal range, plus it was written in the '30s, and I've an affinity for music from around that era. So I decided to try my luck with it. I found a karaoke version of it on YouTube, set my camera up on a stack of books in front of me, and made it through about 15 different takes on two consecutive days. Here's the finished product. I couldn't decide which of the umpteen videos to choose, so I narrowed it down to one from each day of "production". I picked one for the stellar choreography and the other for vocal reasons, though both have some sour notes. As a matter of fact, each take was peppered with bloopers. I considered doing another filming session, but what would be the point? As Sue Sylvester would say, even (my) breath smells of mediocrity. :)

Here goes nothing . . . Yikes!