Singing and Guitar = Hilarity

It's Tuesday night after a hectic and woefully short Victoria Day long weekend. I'm writing an e-mail to this weekend's blind date and in the background are the sappy strains and falsetto of that insipid James Blunt tune, "You're Beautiful". My roommate is back to practicing his guitar and singing with the help of Mr. Blunt.

Before I go on, I should declare how much he's improved his guitar-playing skills in the past 6-8 months. Without any professional instruction save a few instructional DVDs, my roommate has progressed from his tentative, tinny chicken plucks to pulling off fairly confident strumming patterns. His latest feat is to strum a pop tune whilst singing the lyrics, in key and without too many rhythmic anomalies.

That part is still a work in progress.

There I was typing away at the keyboard. "You're Beautiful" hits its climax, prompting James Blunt to take the falsetto into overdrive. My roommate follows suit, to hilarious effect. I had to keep myself from bursting out laughing. It sounded like he was playing around with the pitch of his voice or trying to harmonize with Jimmy Blunt, but it really wasn't working out. It was a key clashing mess. But it was funny.

Props to my roomie for pushing himself in this direction. At 28, this is pretty much his first foray into musical training and he's been pretty diligent about it. He's had to learn the really basic stuff the hard way, the stuff I take for granted like time signature, counting beats, scales and all that jazz. And the singing... well, singing is one of those things that people seem to be deeply embarassed about. Even those who can belt it out have a strange modesty about it, like it's a talent that should be hidden away from others or the hardwork that went into developing the skill should be downplayed. Well, I'll be the first to say my roommate's singing was atrocious in the beginning in every possible way. Simon Cowell would have had a field day with him.

Lately, however, my rommate's really upped his game. His singing is still a ways off from being pleasant, but he's hitting the notes and learning to keep the rhythm and apply inflection and feeling to his voice. Laugh all I want but the day will come when he'll pick up his guitar for a song, and the voice of angels will emit from his mouth.

Okay, maybe angels is pushing it a little. Even the songs from the likes of Blunt and Jack Johnson are hard enough to swallow when sung by their creators...