You win…
‘What? What did I win at?’
Looking at my puzzled friend, I thought to myself, ‘What else could it be? It’s the high notes.’ It’s a bit of a story, but recently I stumbled across a YouTube clip about a vocal coach teaching how to use head voice, and guess what? I totally nailed it! 🎶
Ever since that annoying senior at my first club audition said, ‘You’re stuck at G,’ I’ve lived thinking there was an invisible ‘G’ above my head forever. Even at karaoke, I made sure I knew where the remote was, ready to drop the key when it was my turn. I even mastered the art of lowering the key before the track started. That annoying guy who would jump into the chorus of my songs, shouting, ‘Wow, it goes up!’ didn’t realize he wasn’t hitting it. Like, dude, you’re not even close.
Our band broke up for many reasons, but a big one was the frustration of constantly lowering the key for me, the ‘not-so-talented’ vocalist. They were tired of singing ‘Interstate Love Song’ over and over. Instead of working on their skills, they complained. But there’s one friend, who was on a similar vocal range as me and could instantly drop a song by a key and a half, whom I’m still close to. (Honestly, I just needed a half-step down…)
So there I was, following that YouTube clip, and I unlocked the magic of head voice. Turns out, head voice doesn’t mean your skull cracks open to let the sound out. 😂 I really thought it did! I was convinced it was a blatant lie. Who on earth named it that? It’s actually the sound resonating from the upper skull. I had unknowingly used it before too. Crazy, right?
One day, I was chatting with a coworker about music, and naturally, I started bragging about my newfound head voice skills. It’s kind of a big deal! But then she said,
‘I can hit super high notes too. In fact, I might be better!’
That hit my pride a bit. At least I’m serious about music. I don’t clap in karaoke unless someone truly deserves it. Even if people think I’m being a party pooper, I don’t care. I’m not generous when it comes to music. If you want my applause, don’t mess up the pitch. If the vocals don’t sync perfectly with the drumming or guitar strumming, it bugs me. And now, I’ve mastered the grand slam of vocals with head voice!
‘Uh… there’s no way!’
‘Oh, but there is!’
I was ready to challenge her to a karaoke battle right then and there. A battle! A word I hadn’t thought about since my demo got rejected and I couldn’t even qualify for a college music festival. But the pandemic stopped that epic showdown. (COVID is a real party crasher.) 😷
Then a few days ago, while munching on dried pollack chips, I choked really badly. Somehow, all those little pieces got into my airways and lungs. (At least, that’s what I think happened.) And just like that, my hard-earned head voice was gone, and I couldn’t hit high notes anymore. I just want to tell Minyoung from Brave Girls, please, now that you’re shining, stay away from dried pollack chips! 🙏
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