a couple of musical questions I forgot to ask, yesterday:

[capri0mni]

• Have you ever sung out loud in public?


• Outside of an audience to a concert?


• Without a radio or ipod to sing along with?


• Do you sing to yourself, just because?


• Have you ever come across a stranger who was singing out loud in public?


• Did it make you happy, or anxious?

Comments

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

1. Yes, around a bonfire and as part of ritual.
a) Yes.
b) Yes, acapella.

2. Yes.

3. Not really.
a) N/A

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

I asked that last question because on Monday in the grocery store, the guy who was stocking the cut melon shelves was singing/humming... I think it was a tune he made up. I thought it was nice that he was happy with what he was doing.

And I think, in general (at least around here), it seems like people in our culture are afraid to sing for themselves.

[barbarafett.livejournal.com]

Then you'll be happy to know that I do sing aloud, both for myself and for others (I go to church), fairly often.

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

Behavioural norms in public are very strictly enforced - once you pass a certain age, it's like, "don't do this. People will think X." And you're shamed into keeping that playful aspect of yourself away for fear of other people's judgement.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

I first started paying particular attention to this when I moved down here and attended local Pagan gatherings -- the only chant that was really sung was:

"May the circle be open, but unbroken
May the Peace of the Goddess be ever in your heart
Merry Meet, Merry Part, Merry Meet again."

Everything else, even chants I learned with rousing melodies in the Mid-Hudson Pagan community, was reduced to one or two note drones around here... Almost as if people are afraid of hitting a wrong note. Or maybe they never learned the tunes, which is possible.

If it's the former, it would be rather sad, considering how a ritual is supposed to be empowering.

[pedanther]

I have often sung out loud in public, on stage and in congregation-leading situations. In non-performance-type situations, not so often. I do frequently sing to myself, just because; but usually only when myself is the only person who will hear me. Singing in public for no particular reason is one of those things that is Not Done. I can't remember the last time I saw somebody doing it (buskers don't count, right?), but I suspect that it would make me uncomfortable.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Hm. Singing, for me (whether out of doors or in), was the one big thing that kept me from psychologically imploding while my mother was in her final stages of breast cancer, and I was away from home at grad school.

Granted, I'd never do it in a crowded elevator, or some other space where people would be trapped with me, but I would sing out loud while going along the road from dorm to class and back (particularly <a href="http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6936>The Sailor's Prayer</a> and Julian of Norwich). For me, boom boxes are a much bigger sin. And people who go through life never raising their own voice, but also never taking their iPod earpieces out of their ears is just a massive social tragedy. And busking half-counts. On the one hand, it's more of an organized concert than a spontaneous overwelling of the heart. On the other hand, there's a certain brave character trait in the people who decide to go down the busking road (or at least, stand beside it).