Once you become a little familiar with karaoke and the songs you sing, you often notice that your songs chosen from the song list has some particular letters and numbers as their identifier.  You may notice that you tend to like one set of numbers or letters more than others.  You may even notice that there are some that you find yourself steering clear of.

If you sing a fair amount and have paid attention to these numbers, you may have your favorites.  Those that have not, may like to know what brands of disks are more popular (or not) and why.

Let’s help each other out and make comment on what disks we like best and why.  If you want to comment on those you are not fond of that is fair game, too.

Stay tuned………….Sharon    
         

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to accept and be accepted for who we are? Inside and outside? Unconditionally? We start off that way…what happens?

As young children we are accepting of everyone, we expect that everyone will treat us kindly and take everything for granted. Everyone is equal no matter what the color of their skin or the size of their body. We don’t know any difference. There are no learned biases… yet.

As we grow older, that all changes. We take on our parents or peers values and lessons taught. Far too often we learn to hate because people are different or even because they are less fortunate. The color of skin, the size of body, where they live, physical and mental capacity all become the misguided focus of unwanted attention and criticism

. In elementary school we begin to see children (some to a much greater degree than others, and some not at all) begin to display signs of preferential bias toward skin color, size, behavior, looks, physical or mental prowess, lifestyles, etc.

By high school, if one is inclined to be critical of others, it is fully engrained in their personality by this point and they often become very vocal or obvious about these preferences. These are the people, who grow up to be the adults that behave in the same way and end up teaching their children in turn.

Fortunately, there are far more people who are at least willingly to try to see others for what and who they are …inside…and out, and make their preferential decisions based on that. Unfortunately, the ones that do display biases (even though fewer in number) are the ones that make the larger impact. Their words and actions are usually often heard or felt to a greater degree. Their words and actions often cause pain, emotional if not physical.

Now……..All of this brings me to another passion of mine which is music, and karaoke in particular in this blog. So right about now you are saying to yourself, how did she get from acceptance and bias to karaoke?

Ever been to a karaoke bar? If you haven’t, or perhaps visit infrequently, you can’t help but notice something very ’special’ about the karaoke community within it. There are people from all walks of life, all colors and ethnic backgrounds, all sizes and all lifestyles and they are all accepted. Sure you have different levels of ability, but everyone is very accepting of that as well. The regulars of a karaoke community understand that music bridges all those societal stigmas.

Every song, good, not so good or indifferent, gets applause. Smiles are on everyone’s faces. Music induces a ‘good feeling’. ( www.Karaokecraze.com - check out benefits of karaoke) This is not just a thought but actually has a medical reason.

People know they can go to karaoke because they will be accepted by the karaoke community even if they are not always accepted within society.

In my karaoke community, I can count on the fact that every Friday night a very ’special’ group of people will turn up to support the rest of us and ask the same in return. They may not always sing the right words or be able to keep up with the music all the time but their effort and enthusiasm is contagious. And guess who gets the biggest applause? You guessed it!

Occasionally, you will have someone in the audience who says something that is less than kind to someone who is trying their best. These are those people mentioned earlier that obviously have not figured out that whole ‘acceptance’ and ‘tolerance’ thing. ( I can also almost guarantee that their children are the ones that we have to deal with in class for being bullies or critical of others)

A friend of mine, new to karaoke, and very good already, was telling me last week that he had gone to his favorite karaoke venue and when it was announced what he was going to sing, some lady from the crowd hollered out, “Don’t wreck it!”

Even though that tended to put extra pressure on him, he nailed the song perfectly and as he walked back she looked at him with a, “hmmmpff.”

“Geeeesh,” he said to me, “She wasn’t even singing.”

How easy it is to criticize others from the other side of the fence, without knowing circumstances and situations. Or even worse, just because you want to get a laugh or make yourself feel better at someone else’s expense.

I think this is why karaoke has become such a growing success. People not only feel good when they sing, but they know that they will be accepted within their ‘community’. We all want to be accepted within society but know that we often aren’t for whatever reason. What better way to be accepted than by doing something you enjoy, that makes you feel good, with people that enjoy the same thing and will accept you as you are. Wow, now there is a novel idea!

I can honestly say that I am not always thrilled with what I see out there in the big world. How people sometimes treat others without the respect , consideration and/or just being at least tolerant.

On the other hand when I visit my karaoke community, I find that that all seems to disappear, at least in my little world while I am there.

So I have come to the conclusion that we as a society should think about making a couple new years resolutions for 2008. The first is that we should all try to be more accepting and tolerant of other’s differences and the second is that perhaps we should ALL join one of those karaoke communities in order to see how it should be done

Singing online…..hmmmmmmmm…I have been getting quite excited about getting to that point in my site. As I look out my window seeing nothing but white today, I am thinking it is a good day for figuring out just how to go about getting that ‘karaoke singing online’ part working.

Fire blazing in front of me as I watch the world being engulfed in snow just feet from me. The world outside has come almost to a stand still under the 50 centimeters of snow that have fallen during the last day and a half but I know that behind this screen there are people out there just waiting for the opportunity to be singing karaoke online. Some for the first time, behind a login name and a computerized profile picture where karaoke singing online is safe, (don’t you just love annonimity?) building up their courage and confidence. Others have been singing karaoke online for a while and are looking for a new place to meet new friends, share their talents, expertise and views about their passion for music and for singing online karaoke .

Even though my site is new, I am hoping that I will be able to offer a fun, informative,entertaining, karaoke singing online’ site and a place where singers can meet in a friendly,informal setting.

A place that friends will want to tell others about and bring them here to do some karaoke singing online as well. Being new to the online side of karaoke, I’m hoping that those that love karaoke singing online will be willing to give me a few suggestions of what they would like to see on the site.

Today I am marveling at how lucky we are to live in such an age. I am sitting here, for the moment, shut off from the rest of the physical world, schools are closed, programs are shut down,but I can, with the click of a few buttons meet with friends…see them…chat with them…even do some karaoke singing online.

Ah yeah…..tis the life!!!

Tags: fun, Karaoke, online, singing, site
Posted in Online Karaoke Singing |Comments »