Tuesday, Apr. 20, 2004 - 12:10 a.m.

Lend Me a Tenor

I’ve made a huge breakthrough in my singing. Now I can hit all the high notes. ALL the high notes. Loudly. I’ve always been a baritone. I could sing higher notes in a weak, breathy falsetto, but I could never sing 80’s heavy metal convincingly. After several years of abysmal imitation as a teenager, sounding like a dying frog, I came to my senses and sang those songs stepped down an octave or two.

Now my dream deferred has finally exploded in a blaze of glory. It wasn’t a sudden transition, but let’s say I passed a tipping point after which more of my notes were on pitch than flat. I sound more natural than strained. I’m still not perfect, but I’m making steady progress.

I don’t know the official terminology, never having been trained aside from a few lessons, but first I learned to project my falsetto into a shrill, fearsome blast as loud as my normal singing voice. Just recently, I developed a head voice to bridge between my prior range and my falsetto. I’m getting good at smoothing over the transitions between the three voices.

Now I can sing Helloween and Iron Maiden and Queensrÿche like the masters. The only stuff still out of my range are really low bass notes and Mariah Carey glass-shattering pitches. I could sing Sting songs if I wanted to. I can even sing “Dreams” by Van Halen. Higher and higher.

If only I had been thus blessed in the 80’s when castrato shrieking was still in demand. But better late than never.

Just in time too, because My Very Busy Friend has been very busy working on a new speed metal project. The Guitar God I met at Naka-Ima will play guitar on it, and My Very Busy Friend wants me to sing. 15-odd years later, it’s a dream come true.

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