Luh-luh-luh-laryngitis

The past 2 months have been trying, to say the least. Being a 'social animal', not being able to talk (much less sing...!) is the worst feeling. No kidding. All the comments I could have said stay inside me and make me want to implode with gibberish and random words taken out of context. I realise that I COULD get used to nodding mutely and pretending to be a demure girl who has no comments to everything because she doesn't have any brains! Or not.

Aaaaanyway, aside from the emotional trauma my nodule-ridden vocal cords have given me, two months is a pretty long time for self-reflection. So I've lived as a pseudo-introvert instead of being the noisy empty vessel that I usually am, and like they say, still waters run deep. I think I blogged once before about when you're constantly talking, you actually don't have much time to think. And so thinking was what I did!

2 lessons learnt from my bout of laryngitis:

1) Listening to songs as a full work, not just the main melody

Being the wannabe vocalist that I am, I previously listened to my music concentrating around 70% of my attention hearing the vocalist. The lyrics, the tune of the melody, and what kind of voice she was using. I placed very little emphasis on the rest of the band, like the bass, drums, and the backing vocals. I didn't use to be able to tell the harmonies apart. But because I don't sing, I can't imitate the singer in my head, and in fact trying to do so brings the painful (literally) reminder that I can't. Which makes me feel even worse about myself. 

So I focused more on what I should have! I'm not saying that I do now, but I'm trying! Also, I've ventured into checking out music that are not vocalist-driven, a practice that I realise was incredibly myopic (and also a tad selfish) of me in the past.

One downside is that it's difficult to write songs when you're mute. It's hard to think of nice melodies when you can't sing them to hear how they sound.

2) Some things can be left unsaid, and thinking before you speak is an excellent habit

Saying stuff that doesn't add value only wastes air-time and the limited vocal card HP. And talking less actually lets people around you talk more! One-liners that hit home are more memorable than 10 lines that mean nothing. Someone should quote me for class-part!

Yeah 2 lessons for 2 months of ego-torture. 

Time to get back to mugging lit so I can teach it tomorrow x