Well, I did do a little guitar playing and singing yesterday, as I said I intended to do.  At least that particular intention-paved road did not lead directly to Hell, at least not yet.  It may do so in the long run, but I doubt it.  If I go to Hell (figuratively speaking, since I don’t think there is any literal Hell), it’s unlikely to be because of playing music.

It’s interesting (to me) to note that, though I hadn’t played for quite a long time, my black Strat was perfectly in tune.  I did not have to adjust a single string.  I guess that’s partly because it’s been in an office that is kept basically at the same temperature all the time, every day.

I found it surprising, probably because I “grew up” playing the cello, which uses good old fashioned (literally) friction pegs.  Sometimes it seemed that you barely had to look at the peg box and the cello would go out of tune.  Certainly, moving the cello around had an effect; even minor little vibrations and shifts often tended to lead to slippage.  I don’t recall ever not needing to adjust the tuning before playing the cello.

A piano, of course, is at the other end of that spectrum.  A good piano can stay well tuned for years if in a good environment, at least in my experience.  Anyway, if your piano is out of tune a little, you mostly just play it anyway, because tuning a piano is a serious undertaking, usually requiring a professional.  Electronic keyboards, of course, do not tend to go out of tune.

So, yeah, I didn’t have to do any serious maintenance‒or even any frivolous maintenance‒before playing.  I did warm up my voice by talking like Mickey Mouse.  Actually, I did a little impromptu conversation between Mickey Mouse and Goofy, but Goofy was trying to imitate Mickey and Mickey was not amused.  It’s silly, but it seems to get my voice loosened‒or maybe tightened‒up.  Go figure.

Anyway, I started with the Radiohead song Reckoner, which I like to play first a lot of the time.  It’s finger-picked, at least the way I play it, and the song is sung entirely in falsetto.  Though, Gnarls Barkley did a cover of it‒they apparently loved the album In Rainbows, from which this song comes, as did many other people, including me‒and I don’t think CeeLo Green had to sing falsetto.

It turns out that singing that whole falsetto song gets my voice nicely warmed up.  It also pushes me past any fear I might have of sounding silly.  Not that I ought to feel that presumably social anxiety, since I haven’t sung in front of anyone else in I don’t know how long.  But it’s difficult for me to get over the tension, because I have a seeming implicit belief that if I do something it must be perfect or else it’s shameful and even horrific.

This, from a person who thinks that “perfect” is almost always a nonsensical or at least nebulous concept.

After that song, as I often do, I next played and sang The Man Who Sold the World.  I do it more like the Nirvana version than the original David Bowie one, but it’s not without influences from Bowie, including singing “aahs” during the outro.

Then I played the lead guitar part for the Radiohead song Knives Out*.  I did not sing while playing that.  I can do it, but singing while playing lead tends to decrease the quality of the playing and of the singing, so I usually don’t try.  Mark Knopfler may make it look easy, but he’s Mark Knopfler.  Anyway, I sing better than he does.  So, there.

After that, I think I did Wish You Were Hear, then Lucky by Radiohead, then I finished with Nothing Compares 2U, my version of which draws more from Chris Cornell’s cover (below) than Sinead O’Conner’s cover and very little from the Prince original (though I always follow Prince’s admirably correct grammar by singing “I can see whomever I choose” instead of “I can see whoever I choose” like the others tend to do.

I’m slightly pleased to say that the only song for which I brought up any tabs or music to play was Knives Out.  I can more or less do that from memory if necessary, but weirdly enough, I often get messed up on the bridge‒you know, the part where there’s no singing, ever.  Weirdly enough, having sung and played at the same time seems to make it easier for me to remember both things than if I only played.

I’ve noticed (yesterday and previously) a curious and somewhat pleasing thing that happens when I’ve taken a break from playing and then pick it up again:  I often feel that I am playing, at least in some aspects, better than I did when I was playing more regularly.  Has anyone else had that experience?

Singing does not work that way.  Singing is a physical, bodily skill that requires specific kinds of muscle tone and control in the vocal cords, and one does tend to experience a bit of atrophy in those areas with disuse.  They also can get physically sore if you use them too much after a hiatus.  It’s quite a curious experience, having sore muscles in your windpipe and in surrounding areas.

Anyway, that’s my report.  I apologize if it’s boring‒it seems almost certain that it will be to anyone but me‒but I had to write about something.  In any case, I hope you all have a good day.  Here’s Chris Cornell’s amazing live performance of Nothing Compares 2U.

*Yes, the movie by that name, starring Daniel Craig, was named after the song, just as its sequel, Glass Onion, was named after the Beatles song.  I have to forgive the writer/director, Rian Johnson, for any missteps he made on The Last Jedi, because when you share musical taste with someone, it’s hard to feel too badly toward them.  Anyway, Last Jedi wasn’t really that bad, despite much moaning by Star Wars fans, including me, and parts of it were honestly brilliant.  At least it didn’t have to resort to “Somehow, Palpatine returned!” as retconning exposition.