Theory of Karaoke

By Jason Burchard

www.karaokeaddiction.com

LESSON 2:

Risk Being Bad

This lesson may not be an easy or fun lesson, but it can teach you a lot. All you have to do is to go out to a karaoke night and do as the title says - risk being bad. You don’t have to go somewhere two states away where no one will ever see you again either. Part of this lesson is to prove that even if you do bad, it’s likely nobody is going to laugh or post a video of your less-than-stellar performance on YouTube.

I came about this lesson all of a sudden while hanging out with my dad. I wasn’t really prepared to go to karaoke. Sometimes you may feel that way too, ‘I’m not going to sing because I didn’t prepare myself for it’. You should never have to think this. The other karaoke bars I had been to were mostly with younger people and a more ‘rock’ accepting atmosphere. Rock is usually what I sing during my karaoke excursions. The place we happened to be was overwhelmingly country. So, I came up with this idea that if I just picked any country song I knew and tried it out, even if I didn’t know it too well, that either I’ll surprise myself by not being too bad or that I’ll do bad and nobody will seem to care.

I’m not a huge fan of country music, but I do have a few favorite country artists and songs. One of my favorite artists is Hank Williams. I can’t even remember what song exactly it was, that’s how ‘not big of a deal’ it was. It was most likely “You’re Cheatin’ Heart”. It turned out as I expected. I knew the song, liked it, but it wasn’t awful. Yet, it was probably my worst karaoke performance to date. People watched. Not one person pointed, laughed or booed.

That’s all you have to do. Pick a song you like but may not have practiced or may not know very well. It’s not like people are paying and coming to watch you and only you. Just pick a song that might fit with the style of the place, because if you pick something way off the wall, you don’t want to look like you meant to make fun of others or annoy them on purpose. (For instance, singing a song with a lot of cursing is not okay unless you know it will be accepted. Many places ban cursing, and you may not get to sing again that night.) Stick to singing something that you could picture someone else there singing. Then, I doubt that anyone will come up to you and ask for a refund of their cover charge because you weren’t exactly the best karaoke singer they’ve ever heard.

Try this lesson a few times and you’ll begin to be more comfortable and confident in almost any situation. It will boost said confidence enough to where you might not worry as much about being the first one up to sing, or the one of only a few singing in an almost empty bar, or singing in front of a large crowd.

Granted, there are exceptions to the norm because sometimes there are plain mean people and there are those under the influence of a lot of alcohol. But, I’ll bet that even if some idiot happens to make the slightest inconsiderate gesture, everyone else will probably notice their bad manners and the focus won’t be on you. This point actually makes me think about something else I should add. It would be best to not do this lesson around co-workers and certain ‘friends’. You know the ‘friends’, the ones that find something to hold against you. If they don’t karaoke themselves, these ‘friends’ and co-workers are the people you should not do any karaoke around, let alone this sort of lesson. If you do karaoke in front of co-workers you don’t know too well, your karaoke performance may be what they remember most about you. I had this situation at one of my previous jobs when we had a holiday party with karaoke. I had a lot of fun and think I sang well. However, I would still hear about it from certain people at work a year later. “Sang any karaoke lately?” Though, even if this happens to you, it’s not that big of a deal compared to your worst fears of not performing well.

In essence, there are certain things to avoid doing. Don’t perform bad on purpose. Just go in unprepared, and do the best you can while expecting not to be your best. Avoid so-called ‘friends’ and co-workers who don’t also sing karaoke. Do this, try the lesson and you should be better able to face your fears in the future.

NEXT LESSON:
Learn From TV Shows