Etc., Librarianship, Storytime

The hardest thing

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Admit it, all of us have flaws – failings – things that we’re just not good at.  Most of us try to avoid situations where our failings are evident.  Why promote the negative, after all?  Much better to stick to the stuff you’re good at.

So when I talked to Mieke, my best friend from college, a while back and told her that my new job requires me to regularly sing in public, her response was, “Oh, my God, Abs.  Are you kidding?  Those poor people!”  Mieke, of course, has a fabulous voice, and sang all the time in college.  I, of course, have a horrible voice, and sang rarely.

But now I find myself needing to sing as part of my job.  In front of people.  Not just small children, but also their parents, some of whom can carry a tune very well.  And there’s really no way around it.  Story times for young kids need to have books AND fingerplays AND songs; it’s the way kids learn the rhythm of the language, which eventually helps them with reading multi-syllabic words.  Sometimes I’ll break out the boombox and play a song or two from a CD, but there are still times that I have to sing, and it’s pretty painful.

I read Stephen Fry’s autobiography last summer, and one of his phrases really resonated with me.  Fry talks about how he can hear music perfectly in his head, but that he can’t reproduce it; he says that he’s “not tone deaf, but tone dumb.”  That’s exactly what I am, since all those intricacies of the music are so clear in my head, and my inability to voice that music is utterly frustrating to me.

But now that singing is part of my career, what do I do?  I’ll admit to using the “my voice sounds rough because my allergies are really bothering me today” excuse a lot.  On particularly perky days I’ll play the role of cheerleader and say “I want to hear everyone sing this time!”  So far I haven’t yet admitted to being tone dumb, but that time may come.  And I’ve been practicing a lot, singing in the shower after my musical husband leaves for work.  I think I’ve gotten “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” down, but I’m still flummoxed by “The More We Get Together.”  And ”Five Little Ducks” is way, way tough.

Wish me luck.  My singing is definitely a work-in-progress.

One thought on “The hardest thing”

  1. 5 Responses to “The hardest thing”
    1. Jean Says:
    August 30th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
    Oh, do what I do: sing louder. Gesture large. Wear great outfits (or attempt a facsimile thereof). Kids love you, and they are there for the story, not the on-key-ness. The best reading I have ever been to, hands down, was given by Stuart Dybek (short story writer) who read from his amazing collection I Sailed wiht Magellen. Dybek had a horrific cold, but gamely read in front of about 2000 people, and, his reading included singing the songs his characters sing. He was way off key, nasal (the cold), but it was the narrative, the storyline, that carried the day. I swear to you, a standing ovation. Who cares if you can sing. It is, as you say, the rhythm of the language that matters. Go for that. That’s what matters.
    2. Rudy Two-Shoes Says:
    August 31st, 2006 at 3:29 pm
    Or you can do like me and sing when you want to eat. The more you do it the easier it is. Sure you will have days when it just doesn’t work, but other days you’ll suprise yourself – which are awesome. Even though I have a two-note range (the top note is sharp and the bottom note is flat) I still manage to enjoy song. You are a Children’s Librarian, not Celene Dion (the greatest singer…………….in the wirl), give yourself a break and have fun with it.
    3. Jean Says:
    September 1st, 2006 at 12:07 pm
    yay rudy!!
    4. Dan Says:
    September 1st, 2006 at 11:08 pm
    If you aren’t tone-deaf (which you’re obviously not), singing is really a matter of muscle memory. The more you sing, the better your muscles remember what to do when you’re supposed to go up to *that* note, and back down to *that* note. That doesn’t mean that everyone can be a great singer — not everyone can, because only some people have pretty voices. But if you can hear the notes, you really can sing in tune with a little practice. (Singing lessons were what did it for me — and the hardest part for me was hearing the right notes — so you’re already ahead of where I am.)
    By the way. What the *heck* is “Five Little Ducks”? And “The More We Get Together” (which sounds way too New-Agey)?
    5. Abby Says:
    September 2nd, 2006 at 8:40 am
    Thanks, guys, for all the good advice. We’ll see what I can belt out on Tuesday morning!
    And, Dan, “Five Little Ducks” is a semi-creepy song about a mother duck going out for a walk with her five children, and each day one less young duck comes back, until there are none, leaving the mother duck sad. “Five little ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away. Mother Duck said ‘quack, quack, quack,’ but only four little ducks came back.” There have been many books written based on this song, some of which successfully remove the creepy factor and make it a song about growing up and learning to fly.
    And I’m shocked that you don’t know “The More We Get Together”!!
    “The more we get together, together, together, the more we get together, the happier we’ll be. ‘Cause your friends are my friends, and my friends are your friends…”

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