Scintilla13 Day Three

tyunglebower ♦ March 15, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

Talk about a time when you were driving and you sang in the car, all alone. Why do you remember this song, and that stretch of road?

This is a bit like asking me to talk about a time I used salt, and why I remember doing so for that particular meal. It quite easy to recall the concept, but not so easy to recall the specifics. That’s because it’s a normal part of my average day.

I tend to sing in the car, but also at home. I don’t disturb people in a store with my singing, because I think that would be obnoxious, but I do sing alone frequently.

Often I tell people that I don’t tend to suffer from the song stuck in my head thing, because I tend to be singing something to myself or out loud so often, that there isn’t much of a vacuum to be filled in that way.

Which songs? That is a somewhat more interesting question. When alone, and particularly in the car, I have been known to sing anything, but I tend towards power ballad or the few Broadway tunes I know. Probably because those are the most performance-oriented type of pieces. All singing is performing of course, but such songs are more theatrical per se, I guess. Not that I think that as I sing them. I just find that being alone, (and in the car I usually am) suits such songs well. (Though it’s harder to sing some notes when sitting down.)

I don’t do this as much as I used to. I think it’s because for a few years I lived in a small apartment, and didn’t want to disturb other tenants  By the end of my time there I didn’t care, but in a sense it did instill a hesitance to sing, and i think my range has suffered a bit from it. Since moving out of there, I’ve made an effort to sing out loud more often. Which brings me to the question of stretches of road…

As I said, there is no special memory of a particular song on a specific road. But, I am an actor in local theatres. The one I go to the most is about 30 minutes away by highway, but on any given day I opt (am forced) to take the back roads to get there, and that adds another ten minutes. The car I drive has neither CD player nor cassette player if you can believe that. (I can’t.) Also, the radio stations get mostly fuzzy through that stretch. So when taking the bake way to the theatre, the odds are greater that I will do some of that singing in the car I mentioned. I don’t tend to do it on the highway, as I think I need to be concentrating more.

It is probably no surprise it happens more when I am driving later at night than during the day. I think that’s true for everyone.

Playlist? Again, it tends to be whatever comes to mind during any given drive, or day at home. But some popular choices include:

-Various REO Speedwagon hits.

-Music from Les Miserables.

-Older country ballads from my childhood. (Statler Brothers, Oak Ridge Boys, John Denver)

-Elvis, when I want to be more upbeat.

Plus…anything I feel like.

One of my favorites, (which must be done alone in order not to give others a headache, at least in the confines of a car) is Take On Me. I like to see if I can still hit that falsetto. As of a few months ago, I could. I’m happy about that.