Letters to AwkwardList: Singing out of tune

It had been a long time since I last checked my email and found some awkward stories you guys have shared with me via the Submit link on my blog, woo hoo! Here is a story from Anonymous, which I shall name “Music Flava Lava”. Here it goes:

Hey! I discovered this website when I was actually desperate enough to Google search, “How to tell someone that you don’t miss them”. I came across that little post of yours and it actually helped me in my situation. I thank you for that!

I write my own songs. There is a song that I wrote for my ex’s ex, Helen (we became friends for some reason… I guess I have more awkward moments to tell you about, but I’ll start with this one). It was a song for this guy that she was interested in. She asked me to write it and I did. It became her favorite song.

I saw Helen in school at lunch one day while I was with my other friends near the library. They had a guitar with them and they let me borrow it, so I started to play some songs. Helen walked over to me with her friend and she asked me to play her song, and that she would sing.

Uhm. This is when I started to hesitate. But I knew it was rude, so I just went along with it.

So I started to play the intro of my song and she excitedly watched me. She was fine on the first few notes and lines, but I didn’t get why she started to go off tune… like… big time.

For the rest of the song, she sang off-tune; like she didn’t know how my song went and she was trying to make up the melody as she went along. I didn’t want to say anything, so I wanted to sing with her to get her back on track. When I did, I realized it was a mistake. Her note was so far away from mine that I was the one who got embarrassed. Her friend was bold enough to tell me, “Uh, you’re not in tune.”

The song finished as soon as the bell rang. I had never been so happy to go to class in my entire life.

Thanks so much for sharing, Music Flava Lava! It sucks when you try to help somebody and people think that you ruined stuff. But it sounds like hearing someone sing out of tune can be even more awkward! Like at karaoke bars. Ever had to witness someone embarrassing themselves like that? Ouch.

What I think is EVEN MORE awkward is that you are friends with your ex’s ex. I mean, I guess you two have some stuff in common to talk about upon meeting each other, but seriously? Maybe its not as weird as it –wait, yes it is.