Say I have a beautiful voice and I’ve been asked to sing the national anthem in front of a group of people at a college basketball game, do I accept or do I decline? The correct answer is, if only I know how to sing the Star Spangled Banner.
So today, the singer with the amazing voice did not know the Star Spangled Banner. Now, if you’re a normal regular person with a crappy voice like me, one might expect you to at least recognize your own national anthem. Knowing the lyrics wouldn’t be an important part of your daily routine. However, if you’ve been asked to sing the national anthem in front of a few hundred or more group of people, then I think it’s very important to know the lyrics. Just because you’re a good at karaoke doesn’t mean you’re a good singer. It just doesn’t work that way. I’m sorry.
If you don’t know the lyrics, then there’s this nifty site that’ll search the lyrics for you. Also, ‘o’er’ isn’t pronouced as ‘and’. It’s ‘over’ but without the ‘v’ sound.
Once, there was a singer that asked me to play the B or some random note on my flute right before the basketball game. I’m like, uh, sure. I play the requested note and move on. A few minutes later, the lady the asked for the B note goes to the center of the basketball court to sing a horribly off key rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. It was embarrassing to listen to.
First of all, every single version of the Star Spangled Banner I’ve played is in the key of B flat, not B. For those of you who read my blog and don’t know what the difference is, the key of B flat has 2 flats: B flat and E flat. The key of B has 5 sharps: C sharp, D sharp, F sharp, G sharp, and A sharp. I imagine the lady listened to the B note, went to center court, and then had wild internal conflicts with all the B flat versions she had listened to in the past.
Hey, it’s not my fault the lady needed a note played to her to figure out where to start. If she was a professional, then she wouldn’t even need such a thing.
For those of you that are wondering, I can play the Star Spangled Banner by heart on my flute AND I can sing the lyrics. However, if I knew I had to play/sing the song in front of a huge audience solo, I would be practicing until it’s completely perfect in every single way, as flubbing is not an option.