Blog Week: Sing your life

[franceslievens]

It was Morrissey who musically declared one should Sing Your Life (video link). Unable to reproduce the exact lyrics I believe the general message of the song is that you shouldn't hold back because of what a couple of wankers tell you, there's always something to sing about. I take it literally, but don't know whether Morrissey intended that.
Singing for me personally is a means of bringing focus into my life. There is no distraction, only the song. In that way it can taunt those that want your attention: you go on yapping, I'll just stand here and sing. When you do it with others, it almost becomes an act of subversion: we are all singing together and there is nothing you can do about it. We are focussing on the exact same thing, pointing our energy in the same direction, and if we do it right, all you can do is look at us and weep.

There is a lot of singing in this house. I have sung to my daughters to sooth them, to make them laugh, to teach them a part of my heritage. In this day and age so much is written down and recorded that we forget our oral history. So I sing what I know and relearn songs I had forgotten. (Thank you Kapitein Winokio for realising we were loosing part of our heritage to commercial children's songs and deciding to bring the Flemish and Dutch oral history back to life.)
Aged 5 and 2 and a half, the girls sing for me, with the same ease they tell stories or embark on a train of "Why? Why? Why?" Singing is part of everyday life. The eldest sings in a choir at school. She never mentioned this at home, because singing is the natural thing to do. There's nothing special about it.
And that attitude is special. Our sung history was indeed almost dead, because singing isn't something you're supposed to do with so much ease. A lot of people would rather read the telephone book for a filled arena than sing in front of an audience of one. When you sing it feels like your heart is on your tongue and you project your whole being onto others. (Strumming my pain with his fingers etc.) That idea is false, though. Like any kind of performance, singing involves a lot of drama and acting skills. So sing your life, and let them think whatever they want.

Comments

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Lovely post.

I'm not a great singer, but there is still a lot of singing around this house. (And at least indoors I sing like no one is listening....)
The internet is great for helping me do singalongs with the kid with music and lyrics of the classics.

But most of the singing around here comes from the kid. They sing lots in kindergarten - he's got a dedicated music lesson with someone coming in from outside to teach them every week and apart from that they learn lots of songs and always sing songs at the end and beginning of group activities and to say goodbye in the afternoon, which has resulted in the kid bringing home lots of songs. This year he has amazed me with bringing home the full lyrics to songs with five or six stanzas.

A lot of his singing is borderline involuntary, like when he enjoys his food - he still does that, but he is becoming more and more aware of it.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

I don't believe you have to be the best singer to enjoy singing. We all have our limits and children's songs are perfect for all kinds of voices, as long as you can carry a tune.

There is a lot of singing in most kindergarten classes. I have noticed it's an easy way to get a group's attention without shouting. When you sing your voice carries, and when you use the same tunes over and over, the kids get programmed to do certain things when they hear the melodies. What I find very disappointing in most schools is that when the kids are in primary school, the music lessons suddenly cease to be. We had singing and music every week in primary school, but in some of my schools certain teachers don't do that because they don't like to sing. Instead of asking another teacher to cover that lesson for them, they simply program extra maths or something. Sad really.

And thanks for the compliment. :-)