Where My Voice Gets Heard

Last year, during a certain theme event, I was asked to become a cosplay judge for the first time ever in my years of cosplaying. This could be considered quite a breakthrough of sorts. This year, during the sequel to said event, I collaborated with a local band to sing one of my favorite Pokémon songs, if not the most emblematic one of all. This too could be considered another kind of breakthrough, specifically of the musical kind. It became a way for my voice to be able to be heard, in the most literal of senses.

As with some things of a major nature, there is a history behind it. Much of the details I will save for another post, since it involves a crucial musical element: the band, of course - four of them, in fact. What I can detail right now is that diving into singing/J-Song competitions is what most likely helped seal the deal, as they helped make my voice heard. It was partially the suggestion of a friend, so I have to thank that friend as well. I made my mark in them just a little over a year ago with the same song, coincidentally or not; since then, I've had mixed successes (actually, mostly failures with one notable exception) much like my cosplay efforts. But even that one success seems rather instrumental - no pun intended - in the collaboration that eventually transpired and became realized.

Before that collaboration could be realized, however, there was of course some practice for it, like for any good band effort. As previously hinted, the practice session occurred the Friday before the theme event and after Halloween. This too became a place for hearing my voice, particularly as it jived with the band's arrangement of the song. That practice session lasted for about two hours, and it also helped to shed light on how they should play the song as much as it shed light on my vocals. For the latter, during the session, I found that singing with a band was vastly different than singing to a backing track, as is common in the competitions. A primary concern became how much I can really make it be able to be heard given what I can do, and then how that would translate in the actual performance... but this latter bit is also for a different post. It was a crucial point to be sure, especially for someone new to singing with a band.

As for making my voice be heard further, I still have a lot of things that I want to do for those J-Song competitions. I haven't sung the Pokémon songs I truly want to sing, or perhaps those songs in different ways that they could be sung. Even so, with my performance in the latest competition, I'm starting to question my presence in them once again, especially due to the response of the judges. Yet in any case, I've established through them that I have good singing abilities, enough that a band became willing to collaborate with me in a performance. This will likely also be furthered in the future, making my voice be heard even further. For those reasons, my participation in the competitions will continue not just for myself, but also for singing performances in general.

Back to that event (series), it seems it has produced its share of breakthroughs. The latest breakthrough certainly would have to be involving my vocals complemented with a local band. In general, though, putting forth my vocals at these events or conventions is already a breakthrough in itself, especially with what eventually resulted. At this point, one can only expect future breakthroughs, which hopefully may include some more from that series of events, as well as other instances of making my voice be heard, wherever they may be.

One year ago: Dexterity, Pokémon Games, and Me
Two years ago: Team Harmony