My singing (in public) was terrible.

[Creakycroaky]

I volunteered to replace a solo singer at a wedding today who had to drop out. It was a church wedding and I’m in a choir, and usually a strong singer (I’ve sung for many years). I had to sing three hymns alone, in front of a congregation of 30 plus videographers, clergy etc. (Covid rules say no group singing). I thought I’d be fine, but I was so nervous; the first two hymns were a bit wobbly but passable, but by the third, I sounded so awful. My voice was shaking and cracking and flat, I couldn’t hit the high notes and out of the corner of my eye I could see people turning when I made mistakes, it was just mortifying. After the service I left as quickly as I could and stopped in a lay-by on the way home for a big cry. I’m just mortified, I sounded so awful and I’ve never sung that badly before in my life. They were expecting a proper singer and I just feel like I made a fool of myself and let them down. I don’t know the couple, and it’s not my usual church, so I don’t have to go back there again, but still, argh! I want to hide!

I did a presentation at my wine club a couple of years ago & it was a total car crash. Even the woman who's usually a rude, stuck up bitch seemed to be sending me 'you can get through this' vibes! Feel the fear & do it anyway. Better to regret something going a bit wrong than regret not doing something

Thank you all so much for sharing your similar experiences, it makes me feel a lot better! And all the common sense - these are the words I need when the embarrassment creeps back in! Everyone who’s saying how much voices have suffered over the last 15 or so months, you’re right, I hadn’t thought of that - it was such a big leap up from my usual. I’m still not sure I’d say I was glad I’d had a go…..but I’m singing again today in a small group in church, so I’m getting right back to it in a slightly less scary way!

I did a presentation at my wine club a couple of years ago & it was a total car crash. Even the woman who's usually a rude, stuck up bitch seemed to be sending me 'you can get through this' vibes!

I did a speech at an event in a pub and was just so, so crap, wobbly-voiced and terrified, that the barman rushed over to me (during my speech) with a cocktail!

Commiserations - many of us have been there, either singing or playing instruments, if not at a wedding then some other event. The embarrassment fades gradually and eventually it can be quite a funny story! But in any case -

• as others have said - many singers are quite below par at the moment, due to not having had much practice recently, so well done for stepping up at all. Far better than having nobody to sing, in my view.

Also, always worth remembering that not that many people pay close attention - some will have been thinking about something completely different, others half listening but won't really have been comparing it with how it's supposed to sound, and even of those listening attentively very few (probably none!) will have noticed your mistakes. (I suppose the down side is that nobody really notices when people are brilliant, either, but it is some consolation on an off day!)

So as you say, keep going with the sinting, and put it in the box marked 'experiences to forget/laugh off'.

Yeah, as people have said, you'll not see them again, I doubt anyone would recognise you in the street or anything. Onwards and upwards!

I sing in the worship band that leads the hymns at our church. I'm sometimes the only vocalist, although the pianist does sometimes join in.

I was fine doing this before the pandemic, but the combination of no congregational singing and the knowledge that the service is being streamed live on YouTube makes me nervous.

At the beginning of each hymn or song, it takes me by surprise that the congregation aren't singing. I have a moment of doubt when I think "Maybe I shouldn't be singing either?" That couple of seconds of panic affects my breathing, which then affects my singing in a negative way.

We have been leading services under these conditions for months now, and it still throws me every time, particularly in the first verse of the first hymn.

So please be kind to yourself. I think you will be focusing on the errors much more than anyone else was (most of them will not have even noticed that anything was amiss, and those that did notice will forget very quickly).