Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.00.1304121752590.27321@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: hearing singing
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:55:06 -0400 (EDT)
hearing singing What I've been thinking about is singing. I can't sing and can rarely even match notes with an instrument. There seems to be a disconnect between my brain and my ears; I can tell if others are in tune or not, but for myself, it seems almost impossible. So instruments have to sing for me, but I have to learn to play them 'in the small,' that is without thinking about the voice. What's external to the body - the instrument - has to be internalized; what's internal - song/voice production - has to be externalized and forgotten. I play through the clumsiness of beginning to listen and hear through my fingers in conjunction of course with 'normal' hearing. When I hear a song sung, I can't reproduce it either. I don't hear harmony well. But when I'm playing, when I'm 'within' the range of the instrument, I do well, I know the neighborhoods of the notes, the distant regions, and how to get there and wander through them musically with my fingers. It's strange, it's a different world than almost any other musician, but it's what I have to work with. I used to play with Al Wilson (the Owl in the group Canned Heat) who had incredible hearing and incredible voice; he was amazed I could do anything at all given that my tonal range was less than an octave. I worry my speaking voice might be monotone but that doesn't seem to be the case from what others tell me. On top of this I have serious tinnitus and there doesn't seem to be any way to control that either... And sadly, Jonathan Winters just died, it just came over the air :-( http://lounge.espdisk.com/archives/1106 (best) http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/hearing.mp3