My Practice Space | Essay | Music | Singer-Songwriter

I am participating in this project.

Konishi-san reposted my post, asking,
What kind of room is desirable for singing?
And,
Please report back on how many houses away your singing voice reached and echoed when you opened the windows wide.

In this Reiwa era, if you want to sing, unless you are in a proper place,
it just becomes noise.

Going to karaoke or something might be good, but
I don't have the luxury for that,
and the current reality is that I have no choice but to incorporate it into my daily life.

There are parts of me that feel
it has become a slightly lonely era.

When I was little, I would sing Namie-chan's songs in my room
at the top of my lungs.

It wasn't about reaching anyone anymore.

It was at a level of unleashing it.

Kyoto has many row houses,
and the distance to the neighbors is close.

Thinking about it now, I wonder how many houses away my voice reached.

And not only that,

I was also allowed to play the Electone and piano
at an incredibly loud volume.
#WhatAGoodEnvironmentThatWas.
And what a good era it was.

Thinking about it now, I worry if the neighbors were okay.

But back then,

“I want to do it because I want to” came before “I shouldn't be a nuisance.”

I feel like that was the case.

Regardless of morning or night,
I did it as much as I wanted whenever I wanted.

It didn't matter whether the windows were closed or open,

I was simply
releasing the sounds within me out into the world.

A long time passed, and
around 2020, the COVID era arrived, and
I was far removed from anything like singing.

Droplets, droplets everywhere.

But, through various encounters,
around 2024, the timing finally came to properly 'start singing'.

But back then, even though COVID was starting to subside, because of droplets and such,
we were living in masks almost all the time.

But precisely because of that, I felt free inside my mask.

I was constantly muttering to myself.

Whether I was being protected or blocked off,
I wasn't really sure, haha.

It was hard to breathe, it was muffled, and I could barely even hear my own voice, yet I still secretly sang inside that mask.

Thinking back on it now, that time was a strange sight.

To anyone else, I think it must have looked quite ridiculous.

Instead of having the windows wide open, I was blocking my own voice with a single piece of fabric,
and yet, I was still trying to let it out.

And when the mask-wearing life finally ended,
I might have definitely turned into a weirdo.

Even in those times, there was one place
where I could properly let my voice out.

That was my car.
#Makes me glad that life in Okinawa requires a car.

Once the doors were closed, it became a small soundproof room.

A place where no one could hear me,
but where the sound still came back to me clearly.

As a company employee,
once I parked in the lot near my workplace,
my one-man show would begin.

Repeating that over and over,

I still sing in my car from time to time.

And lately, I might always be looking for a place where I can sing as loudly as I want without bothering anyone.

It was there in my daily life.

It was there in my daily life.

It's the arcade.

The noise in the arcade makes it hard to even hear my own voice, but I can record clearly.

Sometimes, when I go to the arcade with my kids, music just suddenly comes to me.

Right there, I might record a hum, or just practice my high notes.

Since I realized that surprisingly no one notices, I sing quite confidently.

To people around me, I probably look like more than just a little bit of a weirdo.

But I can't stop...

I might not have answered the question at the beginning about what kind of room is best, but maybe for me, it's not about the room.

If there's a place where I can let my voice out, that place is where I sing.

Have a wonderful day today, too!

May you and I both have the best luck and smiles.

Every day is a good day.