Singing: Not Fun?

Why is locking myself the my attic and singing and singing and singing not fun for me? It's fun to play guitar. It's fun to play bass. It's fun to program synths and drum machines. It's fun to mix. But I just cannot get into spending time on working on my vocals. Why?

All of the above items that I listed as being "fun" do not come effortlessly to me (is "effortlessly" a word?). Well, I take that back. Sometimes they do. But at first they surely didn't. I had to work my ass off to get proficient on the guitar and bass. I have had friends who have no prior musical training, have picked up the guitar or bass and within 3 months they're as good as I was after 3 years.

Here's my theories:

• I'm getting to be an older dog and I don't want to learn new tricks.
• I am not too enamoured with the tone of my voice. You pick up a guitar that sounds like shit, you get a different one or switch the pickups or throw a bunch of effects on it. Hmmmm.....

I knew typing these ideas out would help me a little. That second bullet did it, I think, so I'll stop the list there. No, I can't swap put my vocal cords (though I think there's some surgery they're doing now) and I've been experimenting with effects, but all that does is hide your suckiness like the old fat man behind the curtain who happened to be the Wizard of Oz. Hmmmm... what's so bad about that? Before Toto came and exposed him, he had a pretty good thing going there. The Emerald City was no joke. Even though he was a big faker, the finished product he produced and perpetuated was pretty impressive. It was quite a feat to build that huge hologram machine and all those pyrotechnics. And when it came down to it, he stepped up and hooked up Dorothy and her posse with all they hoped to get from him. Not bad.

So maybe I'll just hide behind my production skills..... if it sounds good, then so what?

But that's not the issue here: I need to change my outlook on singing. I almost dread going up there to lay down tracks.

You know, I used to love to sing. I actually had the lead in a few musicals when I was in like 6th or 7th grade. Maybe that's part of the problem. Maybe my voice is stuck in "Musical Mode." Maybe forever. I hate musicals.

I'm losing focus on this entry now. I'm just going to go buy Singing for Dummies tonight and stop my whining.