Voice.

I'm a fan of Bad Lip Reading in general -- the absurdist humor is to my taste. I wish they were a little less Freudian at times, but you can't have everything!

This latest video earns a posting here for a different reason, though.



Listen especially to the bit at the end where they talk in character. I think it's the same voice as in this video:



I think it's a pretty good job of making a set of testosterone-altered vocal chords sound feminine. I'm impressed, actually!

Voice Poem

I open my mouth
There's a gateway.
From the inside: out.
From the outside: in.

Way in.

I breathe in. I feel my voice engage.
I am at war with the sound
I make when I sing.
My voice fails me, but I strive to reconcile with it.
My gift.
The instrument of God, whom I also war with.

I have faith (but not in God.)
I could never open my mouth if I didn't.
My voice and I will win this war together.

Repertoire

I'm thinking of learning this.

Singing Femme

So, I've been doing some singing. I had worked out a song called "Woe" that has some clever lines and a couple of nice chord changes and therefore some nice melodic movement. I'm trying to find a feminine voice, and this song as I've arranged it is a nice frame to hang the best that I can currently do from. I next learned an á capella song from Judy Collins's singing -- "The Hills of Shiloh" which also has a cool quirky melody and with that beautiful voice to model after, I feel like I might eventually come to something that will please my ear.

Then a friend suggested a song that I am now trying to learn. You'd think it would be simple, it's a two minute country pop song from the early seventies as familiar as an old sweater: "Jolene" by Dolly Parton. This is no easy song to sing, and it is showing me my limitations in a bunch of different ways. The signature line in the chorus, where you sing "Jolene" four times in ascending pitch is the first killer. In the space of four words, you sing every note in the scale going up a full octave. The tendency is to build in intensity, and that just doesn't work. You need to keep the volume and force of your voice steady and let the pitch do the work, which is also a feminine strategy for speaking. This runs counter to my instincts (or maybe habits is a better word) and I end up straining on that high note in the last rep of "Jolene." It's right at the top of my range. I'm afraid to transpose the song another step down, because at the beginning of that line, I am afraid of sounding masculine, which I do anyway, but am working on. I don't need any help from the lower pitch.

Another problem with singing the song is that the beautiful lyrics Dolly wrote go by so quickly, you really have to be on your game with annunciation. I've ended up slowing down the tempo significantly to be able to get some expression and to try to give myself room to gentle down on the consonants. and that last "Jolene" in the coda that has the highest note in the song? Fuhgeddaboudit!

I am full of admiration for Dolly as a songwriter and singer and I am just on the verge of shelving this song for now because it's advanced stuff for a "beginner" like me. I sang this song maybe three times a few hours earlier today, and my throat is feeling the strain right now. That's a sign I'm doing something I shouldn't.

Still, that song is ultimately feminine to me and I hope someday to be able to do it justice!

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu -- PonPonPon

This video has been described as "almost too good" by someone whose judgement in such matters I trust implicitly. This is J-pop with a decidedly surrealist bent.



A little googling turned up Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's story -- evidently a model and fashion blogger from Tokyo who earlier this year put out her first ep and has gone viral with this video.

I think it's beautiful.