When You Think You Don't Have the Skills...

There are three things you need to know about me. OK, maybe you don't NEED to in order to keep breathing, but for today's topic, they're pretty important.

The first is that I'm a good writer. And I don't just mean in the area of writing novels. I also do email marketing, web pages, poetry, songs, and philosophical debates about the morality of fictional characters on Facebook.

You should see the conversations this guy has sparked.

Today, we're talking about songs. Which brings us to number two...

I'm not that great a singer.

OK, sometimes I am, but that's usually when a piece of recording equipment isn't lurking nearby to scare 70% of my vocal power back into my chest. Which, of course, means all my best singing moments go uncaptured, leaving me to silently fume at my own attempts to record my voice and wonder why the frell I can't sound as good on my computer as I do while sweeping dust and drywall out of a tenant's basement.

Of course, the fact that the aforementioned recording equipment is a tad subpar doesn't do me any favors. I FINALLY manage to get my voice to cooperate, only to discover that the recorded version covered in static. Like an unskilled baker finally making a perfect cake, only to have a cat pee on it.

At that point, I take a deep breath, and distract myself from the need to throw the headset into the wall.

Fortunately, that's when the third thing comes into play:

When I really want to do something, I'm not in the habit of allowing a lack of needed skills and equipment to stop me. Just because I can't get volume from my vocal cords doesn't mean I can't get it elsewhere.

What nature has neglected, the fruit of modern science shall provide.

So, is this me writing a blog post just to admit to you that I'm one of those singers who uses technology to make up for a lack of talent?

Yes. And no.

This is me writing a blog post to say that even though I'm only partly trained in one instrument, my singing voice isn't the strongest, and my headset sometimes tries to help by adding its own sounds to the mix, I didn't let that stop me.

I wanted to write a song for my favorite character from my favorite series, frell it, and what's more, I wanted it to have instrumentals and everything.

So I took some of the soundtrack from said series, remixed the crap out of it, sang the song six or seven times, and combined the best parts from all of those vocal samples. When I decided that I didn't like how I sang some parts, I redid them and added them in.

So what's the takeaway?

For one thing, I'm inspirational. :) I am proof that just because you aren't equipped to do something the traditional way, that doesn't mean you have to give up on doing it at all.

For another, watch this video. Seriously. I don't care if I just did the worst job of selling something that any marketing expert ever did. It's not like you're paying me anyway. :P So if you like Farscape, and especially if you like seeing an unusual take on a character, enjoy the fruits of my efforts.