They say a person’s tastes change every seven years. In my case, it’s true.
Seven years ago was 2017. I was living in Sonoma, California and playing my guitar when I needed to boost my spirits. Sometimes I played classical and jazz on my clarinet with a CD for accompaniment. I joined the Sonoma band and marched in the 4th of July parade. Then I discovered online karaoke. Oh, boy! Did my world ever change!
A new mic, two ring lights and various phone stands later…
Overnight, I began singing with people from all around the world. We created funny (and sometimes pretty darn good) videos of our duets. For me, it was like crack cocaine. (Not that I’ve ever had any…) I could concentrate on singing and not have to worry about getting the right guitar chord in the right place. I didn’t have to get out an instrument and deal with ancient falling-apart music books. I could just belt out a song. It was so freeing. And it felt so good afterward.
The seven-year itch change was fortunate for me, too, what with COVID on the horizon and a move to a remote town in eastern Washington. Through all the chaos and fear, I kept singing and making new friends. And those friends got me through the darkest days of COVID.
Almost six-thousand duets later, I am no longer singing as often as I used to, because I’m busy writing a new mystery series (The Sarah McKee Mysteries). But I know my karaoke friends are still out there, giving me hearts and thumbs up and encouragement as I do them.
As I say on my Smule Karaoke profile, I’m singing for world peace. I am sure that if we all sang songs together, we would put the warmongers out of business.
Duet, anyone?