This piece is not of my own composition. This is my friend Christopher Kim work. In it, you will see the experience that he gets whenever he sings. It is a powerful, riveting, and impassioned piece that puts to words, the emotions of what it is like to sing and be free. I will be sure to post more of his work in the future, but for now, enjoy this piece.
When I sing, I feel like the world stops moving and all things around me come to a halt. The air becomes still as I focus solely on hitting each note and making the perfect intonation. The wonderful patterns of notes that come together to form songs seem to command the atmosphere. Anywhere one walks, music expressed by my vocal chords powerfully communicates a language that people of any race, background, or culture can understand. Yet like communication comes in many languages, music comes in many different styles, each of which evokes unique feelings and emotion.
Singing has been an inherent part of my life. From a young age, I have grown up with traditional hymns sung at church or my mother singing the Brooklyn Tabernacle gospel in the kitchen. All these experiences have come together to form my own style of singing. While my voice can be as grandiose as the opera singers in their majestic halls of gold, it can also be as soft as a prayerful soul singing a hymn in a tranquil sanctuary. At times I experiment with vocalization, painting intricately woven musical patterns across the air like the flurry of an exotic bird. I skillfully maneuver through the notes, being careful to dodge the flat keys and avoid the sharps. Each note must be a bullseye; the shot must be clean and full. Although still in development, my vibrato can be as powerful as the waves of the ocean. I take a breath in preparation for the climax of a song and start to crescendo into the peak of the note. The continuous pulse of my voice, as defined by vibrato, is so fast and uniform like the wave of a healthy heart beat. My lungs burst with passion as I my voice undulates to a close.
If I could describe my voice, I would call it distinguishable, like the echo of a water droplet amidst a large cavern. Many have called me talented and counted me lucky to own such a beautiful voice. All I know is that when I sing, an important part of me is communicated in a way that casual conversation cannot. When I sing, I speak with my soul and enter a realm that seems to transcend sensation. I do not scream like rock stars and I do not speak like rappers. I cannot match the voice of contemporary pop stars, but one thing remains certain: my voice is my own. It represents the places I have been and the people I have met. It reflects the way I have been raised and the uniqueness of my culture. It illustrates the things I have done, the extracurriculars I participate in. I sing to forget my current circumstances and voice them at the same time. I sing to feel joy, sadness, anger, pity, and loss. I sing to praise the Almighty God for each moment He has blessed me with, whether it be a triumph or a failure. When I sing, I am no longer a bird caged in by my circumstances. No, I know why the caged bird sings. He sings to break the iron, to break the metal that binds him. He sings to shout the walls that have shut him in down to dust. Then he is free to fly. I sing to fly high among the clouds where people’s judgement cannot reach me. They shout and shout, but when I am up here, all I can hear is the wind roaring through my ears as I shoot across the sky.
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