What if I ain't no violinist?

38. Twoset Singers

It all started one night when Eddy stumbled across an ad for a singing app. It looked like a simple karaoke app where you get to choose karaoke songs to sing with. It wasn't a "learn how to sing" type app, which Eddy really didn't believe in, but this app looked like a bit of fun. So he clicked on the link for a free 7 day trial.

He was quite self-conscious when he sang his first recording, his voice shook and he had to do a few retakes to be remotely happy with the result. However, when he recorded his second song his voice wasn't as shaky as before. By the third song, he was enjoying it so much he signed up and paid for an annual premier membership!

That night he recorded 20 songs. Since an average length of a pop song was about 4 minutes, you would think he would've finished it all in about a couple of hours. However, Eddy would often need to do re-takes, sometimes only parts of it, sometimes for the entire song, depending on how satisfied he was when he listened back to his recordings, so the whole process took a very long time. Sometimes he would have to look for the song on Youtube or Spotify to check parts of the song on how it was sung. He was a bit of a perfectionist so by the time he finished his 20th song, his alarm went off and it was time to get up for work!

Did I just spend the whole night recording a whole album of songs?

That day, he walked into the office like a zombie. But he was on a high!

So now whenever Eddy had time alone at home, he assumed a different identity. He was now a recording vocalist. He liked the sound of that.

The singing app allowed you to sing and record your solo singing. There was also a feature to collaborate with others by recording yourself singing only half of the song, like every 2nd row of the lyrics, then allow other people to join the recording to complete the song by singing and recording the missing parts of the lyrics. Eddy particularly enjoyed these collaborations. He realised he was collaborating with people all around the world.  Did that now make him an international recording vocalist?  He liked the sound of that even more. Eddy knew how to play a bit of piano which helped him work out how to sing in thirds and harmonise to the melody. This opened up his singing world into a whole new dimension as he felt it added so much depth to the finished song.

Unfortunately, Eddy wasn't connected to people who could sing well yet and it was difficult to harmonise with those who could not hold a tune. So Eddy started a search of people who could sing well. He first visited the accounts of those with large numbers of followers. Most of these people sang pretty well but many of them regarded the singing app like any other social media and barely gave a "Like" or feedback to any of their collaborations, which was a bit disappointing. Eddy would have preferred at least an acknowledgement, or better still, some constructive feedback about his singing.

Eddy eventually resorted to the conclusion that he would have to patiently search for people who liked the same songs and could sing them well.

That night he looked through people looking for collaborators for his favourite songs and clicked on a singer called brettybang.

He had the most beautifully textured voice. His voice was smooth like velvet and rich like chocolate. His singing was right on pitch. The song was a duet and he had sung the male part of the song and he was inviting people to join and sing the female part. Eddy immediately tapped on the "collaborate" button to sing with him. He had about 5 seconds to decide whether he should sing with his falsetto or tenor range. He decided to try falsetto as the lyrics were meant for a female part. It was his first time to record his singing in falsetto. He felt like his voice fitted brettybang's vocals like two matching pieces of a puzzle. He knew that this would be his best collaboration ever, even while he was still singing and recording. He felt a squeeze in his heart as the song was coming to an end. Eddy was shy and normally never said any words when recording unless the person he was collaborating with left messages in the original sound file. If the person said "Hi!" or "Thank you for singing with me!", Eddy may just say "Hi!" or "Thank you!" back. Eddy wasn't a fan of recording his speaking voice and preferred to just record his singing. But on this occasion, he couldn't help it, during the outro of the song, he gasped and said out loud;

"I hope we get to sing again!" in his usual speaking voice before the soundfile abruptly finished and the recording completed.

Brett had a secret. He told people around him that he did not listen to pop music. In fact, not only did he love listening to them, he loved singing them as well.

Brett had the same singing app that Eddy had signed up on the day before. Brett has been singing on this app for a few years now. To date, he's made over 10,000 recordings.

This morning on his train ride to work, he noticed he had a new collaboration with someone who he didn't recognise.

"edster233, hey. Hmm, let's see what you've got."

Through his ear pods, he first heard his own voice sing the first two lines of lyrics, followed by a somewhat shaky female voice. Brett could tell they weren't formally trained vocals. It still sounded pretty shaky and rough around the edges. But neither Brett was formally trained, so he didn't mind, he thought her voice was airy and pretty nice. It wasn't pitchy, she was a good singer.

"Hmm not bad"

edster233's short solo part finished and Brett was expecting to hear himself sing the next bit so he contemplated skipping straight to the chorus part of the song.

Except he heard something unexpected.

Brett's voice was layered with edster233's voice, harmonising with him.

"Oh wow"

Her voice harmonised with Brett's melody in such as gentle and caressing way that it stirred Brett up in a way he never felt before.

As the song ended and he was enjoying the aftermath of the song, a breathy plea 2 octaves lower was heard and surprised Brett.

"I hope we get to sing again!"

Brett's jaw dropped.

"Oh my god it was a guy ?"

Brett clicked on edster233's name to go to his channel page and flicked to the "About me" link. It would normally mark the singer's location as a crotchet on a world map. Unfortunately in this instance, the crotchet was floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!!

"Damn it, he's an android user!"

It was a well-known bug for the android version of the app.

Maybe his name was Ed ? What did the 233 mean?

Brett scrolled through edster233's channel and looked at the songs he had sung to date.

I think he's around my age... I can tell by the songs he's picked to sing...!

There was something else that he sensed but couldn't quite put his finger on.

He went back to their duet and played it again.

Can I guess it from his accent?

Brett had been singing with a lot of people around the globe and was familiar with a lot of accents. This guy didn't seem to have any noticeable accent.

He sounds like a native speaker of English...

Wait ! Speaker of English ?? I have heard him speak !!

Brett quickly scrolled the song to fast forward to the end of the recording.

"I hope we get to sing again!"

He played it again.

"I hope we get to sing again!"

Holly sh*t, he's Australian !!!"

He couldn't pick up on any accent because it sounded so natural to him!!

Oh my god, he's probably in Australia!

Brett wasn't thinking as far as meeting up with the guy but being in the same timezone just made things easier for future collaborations, since there was a better chance of them logging on at the same time. He was all smiles as he typed a message back.

"G'day, thx 4 collab'ing with me, loved ur voice, beautiful harms. Would def love 2 sing with u again."

To be continued...