Thursday, June 4, 2009

Truth in Advertising

True story: when I was in Senior Primary I went about two years without singing once during sharing time. One Sunday, though, I decided to sing again. And I did...until the Primary Chorister whispered in my ear that I was a couple of notes off key. That pretty much shut me up through the rest of my years in Primary.

And that is why I'm one of those members who feigns participation during the singing of the hymns. It's also why I'm a cartoonist and not a contestant on American Idol. Well, that and I sing off key.

8 comments:

  1. That would traumatize me too! All the choristers I know are just thankful when the boys will sing! I'm glad you found your niche, though. :)

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  2. Of course there's always one older sister in the congregation who projects her voluble vibrato as if she were auditioning for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. She more than makes up for the rest of use who mumble the words in an off-key moan.

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  3. This is now in my top ten favorites of your cartoons. This is hilarious. I rarely write the letters LOL (at least not in sequence and caps) but I believe that this acronym adequately describes my response to this cartoon. I hope you say this one day in church and invite me there the day you decide to do it.

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  4. By the way, I also have a similarly true story from my past. My first companion in the mission field told my that I was always a little off key when we sang with members or investigators. He thought it would bring the spirit more if we were more in harmony so he wanted to spend a morning study session teaching me to sing. After about ten minutes he said "Why don't you just sing under your breath and I'll sing for both of us." I've been singing under my breath ever since.

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  5. Although you'd never guess it from Joel and me, we Van De Graaffs actually can claim a musician of some renown as our own. Our cousin Peter Van De Graaff is an acclaimed classical vocalist who has performed throughout the world.

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  6. Neither of my brothers would sing aloud because they both hate their singing voices XD They both sound just fine, and i'm sure you guys can't be any worse than that one primary kid that always sings at the top of their lungs, warbling merrily offkey for the whole primary program....

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  7. I'm 99% sure that all primary kids sing off key.

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  8. When I was in Primary, I was the only one who actually sung in sharing time. One time, the teacher had to ask me to not sing so that the others could prove they knew the hymn. They hadn’t learned even half of it, so most of that sing through were silent mutters.

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