The thing about singing jumped out for me. Singing past a certain age is HARD and it requires a level of dedication few understand. We did a show a few months ago and I agreed to do a Gladys Knight song. I don't normally sing lead these days so getting into condition where I could sing Gladys and play Jamerson at the same time was not a walk in the park. It was a lot of work. After that was done, my voice was in great shape and I asked my band for a couple more lead songs; we added a few but they dropped them from the set list but still wanted to keep Gladys in. I said, nope. Not going through what I need to do to stay in shape to do that for just one song.
We ended up getting a request for it at our last show from someone who heard me sing it at that other show, so I did it, and I sang it poorly. Tonight someone who was there told me the song is "out of my range." It's not out of my range, you moron. It's a song I wasn't prepared to sing. I have plenty of range for it, obviously, or it wouldn't have sounded good at the previous show. But I wasn't physically conditioned for it at this more recent show. I wasn't planning to sing it. It's a hard freaking song. It was a hard song for me to sing when I was in my 20's and I'm almost 60 now.
So if you really enjoy singing, this is something you'll need to keep in mind as you age. You need to commit time and physical resources to keeping your singing core in shape. That means exercising all the musculature related to breathing and vocalizing, and doing that frequently.
If you don't enjoy singing, or your bands aren't giving you opportunities to sing, then it's up to you as to whether to do that extra work. For me, I'd rather not if there's no payback. I love singing, but I don't mind being a sideman, if that's where the work is.
We ended up getting a request for it at our last show from someone who heard me sing it at that other show, so I did it, and I sang it poorly. Tonight someone who was there told me the song is "out of my range." It's not out of my range, you moron. It's a song I wasn't prepared to sing. I have plenty of range for it, obviously, or it wouldn't have sounded good at the previous show. But I wasn't physically conditioned for it at this more recent show. I wasn't planning to sing it. It's a hard freaking song. It was a hard song for me to sing when I was in my 20's and I'm almost 60 now.
So if you really enjoy singing, this is something you'll need to keep in mind as you age. You need to commit time and physical resources to keeping your singing core in shape. That means exercising all the musculature related to breathing and vocalizing, and doing that frequently.
If you don't enjoy singing, or your bands aren't giving you opportunities to sing, then it's up to you as to whether to do that extra work. For me, I'd rather not if there's no payback. I love singing, but I don't mind being a sideman, if that's where the work is.
