Friday, April 12, 2013

K IS FOR KARAOKE



The first time I ever sang karaoke was at a friend's wedding reception.  I loved it.  However, I didn't become an avid karaoke singer until I married my now ex-husband.  Together we found a place that did karaoke six nights a week... not that we could go six nights a week.  However, there is a big difference between a club that exclusively does karaoke and karaoke that happens in a restaurant a few hours one night a week.  I say this as someone who had participated in both events.

If you will recall my previous post on college majors, I did choose Music initially in college.  There is a reason for that.  I love music.  I love singing.   I was that  girl who danced around singing into her hairbrush.  Sometimes I forget the power that music has to make me feel amazing inside.  Music is a cure for the blues.  Putting in a CD, scrolling through YouTube and singing along to my favorites, or plugging in my IPOD are all good alternatives to karaoke.  In fact, YouTube is my practice forum before I go sing karaoke anywhere.  It is always good to run through a song a few times and YouTube almost always has a Lyric Video to help a person out!


I sing karaoke for fun.  I also sing a WIDE variety of songs.  In fact, it can be a long time before I recycle a song.  I am not one of those people who sings the same song over and over until it is perfect.  There are many people who run the karaoke circuit who sing the same four to six songs every time you hear them.  Granted, they sound pretty darn good on those songs, but those are the only songs they ever sing.  (It is something of *yawnfest* for the regulars.)  There are those who sing to impress and those who sing for the rollicking good fun of it.  I fall into the latter category.  My songs aren't perfect.  I do strive to entertain while I am singing.  And if I manage to land on a really terrible version of a song that I thought I could sing, I have been known to apologize after... I once said, "This sounded much better in the car." The entire bar laughed.  That was at the Real Karaoke Place.  Anyway, karaoke fans always give you points just for getting up there and trying.

I have been trying for the last three hours to upload a video of me singing last week at a local restaurant from my IPOD onto this blog.  Zero success.  So, I tried to upload it onto Photobucket.  The upload also failed there.  Apparently, it is trapped in my IPOD forever to be shared with no one EVER.  This actually speaks volumes about my understand of everything "techy."  It took me a very long time to figure out how to even work the camera in the IPOD.  So, there you go.

Karaoke Rating ~ Passion

22 comments:

  1. The smile is even better than the song. I enjoyed hearing it!

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  2. I've always thought it would be so fun to do karaoke! BUT . . . I'm too chicken!

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  3. A singing voice is such a marvelous gift. Yes, yes, please DO learn how to run the dang thing and take some more videos. I really would love to see/hear you singing and I'm sure all your friends would. That is exactly why I do not want any more electronic gadgets. It takes me forever to learn how to run them.

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  4. I'm sorry we don't get to see the video.
    I don't do it in public, but we have several Karaoke games for our Playstation. Most of the ones I sing are outside of my preferred genre. I don't even like Billy Joel, but I can score a perfect 50,000 points singing one of his songs every time. Guess I have that kind of voice.

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  5. Well, I tend to sing from a repertoire but it's varied. I only pick songs I know the lyrics to, and have sung before (even if only in the shower).

    I like the bars geared towards karaoke as they usually have a stage (as opposed to people sitting at their table singing).

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  6. JJ ~ That is really kind. Would you believe I had a terrible time finding a picture that would let me "upsize" it on blogger? It's just been one of those days. So, that means SO MUCH.

    Judy ~ Go out someplace where you don't know anyone. That way if it is awful... it really won't matter. However, I do suggest doing a song that you know really well and that is in your vocal range.

    Manzi ~ I suppose this means I will have to try and tackle my phone. I think it captures video. I have no idea how to work it, either. Or download anything from it. I might try my IPOD once more and see if this was a fluke.

    Alex ~ Yeah, me too. That is funny about Billy Joel. I like his songs, but sometimes he is just too low for me. If I want to sing them, I usually have to modify the key. Hahahaha.

    Larry ~ I am totally with you on a place that is specific for Karaoke. They are not that easy to find. I haven't found one since we moved. So, it has been all restaurants (yuck). I didn't mean to imply that I never repeat a song or that I don't have some songs that I like more than others, because I do. I tend to sing a lot of 80s stuff, probably because I grew up on it and know it well. I do try to practice on YouTube whatever I plan to sing before we go out (just so that it is fresh).

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  7. As an ex hotel singer, I can tell you that there are professional singers who only learn 30 songs and sing them every night. Lucky for them, there's a big turnover at hotels, so only the staff cringe. Great post, and I LOVE your header! :-)

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  8. I love singing. In another lifetime, I sang in a girl group for a short while. And in the choir. Now I sing in the shower and to my dogs. And with Pandora.

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  9. Karaoke's great, but I'll never sing it at someone's house again. Not after I stepped outside for some fresh air, only to realise that I could hear the person inside singing as clear as a bell ... but I couldn't hear the music at all!

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  10. I used to do karaoke too. A jazz club allowed patrons to go up on stage and sing. It was awesome. There were a lot of bad singers, sure, but dang, there were some incredible ones too.

    It was fun to feel like a star!

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  11. I love to sing in the car ALONE... in the house while I'm cleaning ... again ALONE! You and everyone else are very welcome for that! Yes, it's that bad!
    Peanut Butter and Whine

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  12. Unfortunately my singing voice is only made for the shower and even then the dog starts to howl.

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  13. Lexa ~ Thank you for that insight. I never thought the repertoire of a hotel singer, but that makes perfect sense. I imagine that they want 30 super polished songs. However, that would grate on the people who have to listen night after night;)

    Carol ~ I have done all of that sort singing, too. I love choir singing. And I still am prone to singing in the shower...

    Kellie ~ Hahahaha. Too funny. I have just gotten to *that place* where I simply don't care what people think about my singing voice. I enjoy singing, so I sing:)

    Jay ~ I love it when the not-so-great singers get up there and give it a try. I think it is very encouraging to *everyone* to drop their inhibitions and JUST DO IT. Now, that being said, I don't want to listen to people who can't ever get on the note all night long! Karaoke is super fun and there are some very talented singers out there!!! You are right... it is fun to feel like a star:)

    Connie ~ Karaoke isn't for everyone, but I do think that music is very uplifting to the soul. Keep on singing!

    LD ~ I think your dog is just singing with you:)

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  14. I've always, always wanted to sing Karaoke but never muster up enough courage (even with the liquid kind)to get up there. I do feel myself cracking though, so who knows? I may be up on that stage yet! Lovely picture of you!

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    1. Yvonne ~ If you do get up on that stage, you MUST post about it!!! Thank you so much:)

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  15. Ah... I haven't done karaoke much but it is fun, especially with others you are close to as it's better with other people than alone.

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  16. Rob... For the re-sizing the pics, I don't know if you already did this, but usually with older (non digital) photos, you have to add the dimensions at the end of the pic's code set.

    I tried to type the following out the exact way it should look, but I wasn't able to publish the comment because blogger thought I was trying to add html code. So I'll try to write it out.

    After the jpg or png at the end of the pic's code, but before the backslash, type the word height, then the equal sign, then a quotation mark, then the number you want the height to be and another quotation mark. Then, without a space, type the word width, the equal sign, quotation mark, the number you want the width to be and another quotation mark. Then go back to compose mode. Hopefully, it worked.

    You don't have to change or remove any of the pre-set height or width values that are already in the code. Just leave them where they are. (and use your own preferred dimensions, of course)

    I don't know much about iPod video, but I know with video from my point & shoot camera, I have to upload to windows movie maker first and then to youtube or facebook, etc. Might not be even remotely the same thing with an iPod, but thought I'd throw it out there. Good luck, darlin'! XOXO

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    1. I was able to make THIS photo larger, but it also was more blurry. Ironically, the only way for it to NOT be blurry was for it to be TINY. Egads. I had another TINY photo that I couldn't enlarge because I didn't know how to do precisely what you are talking about here. So, thank you. I am going to keep this information RIGHT HERE where I had all of the problems, and I am hoping I will remember where to find it. However, I think I will remember (and not need the reference).

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    2. Great! Glad it helped, at least a little. And don't worry... If you ever forget, you know that all you have to do is ask and I'll be happy to help in whatever way I can. The older non-digi photos can be really difficult to work with. The cameras back then didn't have even close to the pixel size or quality that they do now, so increasing the size (even a little bit) almost always results in a blurry photo. Have you had any luck with the video? Maybe it would upload on iTunes? Or, maybe youtube? I would really, really LOVE to see (and hear) it! XOXO M.

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    3. I never even thought to try those sites. I don't have accounts with either one. When I feel like tackling it again, I will give those a shot. It might be after this challenge is over. It's all I can do to keep up with posting daily. And reading daily.

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  17. I would love to hear you do your karaoke thing! It is so fun to get up there and sing, even if you're not the best. I have heard from many that being a regular at a good karaoke place is like having a little second family. I agree with JJ- your smile says it all. You look so beautiful in that photo, doing something you love!

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    1. I will try to post something (again) after the challenge:)

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You can now add YouTube videos in your comments by copy/pasting the link. AND/OR you can insert an image by surrounding the code with this: [im]code[/im]. In the case of images, make sure that your code is short and simple ending with something like .jpg. If you want to use a pic from someplace like Google Images, click on the image, then click on View Image. That is the code you want!

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