Our preliminary findings also tell us that we shouldnРІР‚в„ўt make judgments about singing based on familiar tunes that happen to be really hard. This is problematic for several reasons, but especially because self-concept РІР‚вЂњ or oneРІР‚в„ўs beliefs about oneself РІР‚вЂњ turns out to be really important for participation in the arts. So far it seems that any emphasis on singing perfectly in tune can be detrimental to the idea that everyone can sing because it suggests that people should sing only if they sing exceptionally well. Teaching those students and others later eventually led me to wonder, why is it that some of the songs we know the best are the hardest ones to sing? The Happy Birthday ClubР”Р„s a professor, choir director and researcher at Penn State University, IРІР‚в„ўm trying to answer this question with my colleagues, in what we affectionately named the РІР‚Сљ Happy Birthday Club,РІР‚Сњ by investigating the conditions that elicit the best singing from individuals. Without a doubt, some of the students, no matter their singing ability, had a tough time hitting some of the notes in these two familiar songs. We often sang spontaneously, too, belting out РІР‚СљHappy BirthdayРІР‚Сњ if someone was celebrating theirs on a rehearsal day. Like all of us, my students had their own preferences in terms of the styles and genres they liked to sing, but of course there were the mainstays that we all had to learn РІР‚вЂњ for example, the national anthem, which we practiced as soloists and as a multi-part choir.

It brought me back to my time as a music teacher in the late 2000s in my home state of Kentucky.

We sang a popular duet, Lady Gaga and Bradley CooperРІР‚в„ўs РІР‚СљShallow,РІР‚Сњ to the roomРІР‚в„ўs applause, and I remembered how good it felt to sing into a microphone. You can likely picture the scene: a restaurant adjacent to a bowling alley with a cheerful crowd and enthusiastic DJ aiming lights at a small stage. Some friends and I recently went to karaoke.

Sing the happy birthday song