Sing us a song, you're the...

...Piano man...

*Ahem* Sorry. Was gettin' my Billy Joel on for a second there.

Good morning, afternoon, evening, or night!

Those of you who've followed me for a while - or that read the welcome message on my sidebar - know that I love to experiment with different ideas and things. Some are cliche, some are strange; some are dark or melancholic, others are silly, bright, and lighthearted. But all are done in good fun.

The sources of inspiration for my poems and stories vary widely, but a number of them have come from songs. Sometimes it'll be the lyrics, sometimes the melody or atmosphere, that all of a sudden switches the lightbulb on in my head and stirs up a thought or those much-needed words. A lot of the time I'll listen to certain instrumental pieces while writing to help keep me on track mood-wise. Point is, music is full of inspiration - but come on now, I don't need to be telling any of you that.

I'm late to the game when it comes to this. Nearly everyone knows the influential power of music. I'm not as.. erm, comfortable in the musical world as most people are by now; I've really only started exploring and understanding it within the last year or two (that's not to say I haven't always loved music, though).

But you know what? I've always had a lot of fun singing. Never knew the lyrics to most things - except car commercials and various other catchy ads that would play on TV or the car radio - but that didn't change anything. It's one of those career paths that I've imagined, that I think would be a blast overall, but that just isn't me.

I'm not a singer. I'm not going to work to become a singer. I don't have the guts to be a singer. But I enjoy it enough to where it influences my writing. I've gotten the occasional comment on how some of my poems read like songs; and that's due in part to my tendency to write them to a certain tune in my head and sing them (totally no shame).

Since I began this blog, I've thought about ways in which I could include audio versions of my poems and stories. For the ones that I wrote to sound more lyrical, I briefly considered recording myself singing them. But I'll be honest with you: I really don't want to put myself out there like that. It goes against all of my good, perhaps slightly paranoid, senses.

...However... I know that there are many people out there who are braver than I when it comes to things like this. People who literally want their voice to be heard, people who have a passion for it. Soo, to anyone like this, I offer you a purely for-fun opportunity: I'm looking for singers!

Here are the details...

Essentials

• No skill requirements! Don't fret about it. No matter how terrible you believe yourself to be, I assure you I'm worse. I salute you simply for having the guts.

• Never practiced but want to give it a go? Perfect. Experienced? Awesome.

• This is open to anyone. Any skill, any age, any person with the want to do it.

• Music is not required, but you'll likely have to supply your own if you wish to use any.

• This is due to copyright on popular songs. If you use music, please have it be your own creation or copyright-free material.

How to do it

• Easy. Just get in contact with me!

• If you want to record yourself but don't feel like singing, you can volunteer to be a narrator, and just read the piece normally.

• You can choose to read or sing one of my current works, or I can create something new for you!

If you'd like to see an example, check out "Inked Magic" and the wonderful job done by Simplelife.

Have a great weekend! Get in touch if you're interested, or if you have any questions!