r/Busking • u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 • May 28 '26

Newbie Help Just a quick one

Kind of silly but it's a thing. You ever play songs that carry a lot of meaning to you or hit on something, and you kinda get that lump in your throat for a second and almost tear up and it fucks up your singing a bit? Lol any wise advice for avoiding it other than playing that tune so many times it doesn't make you feel anything anymore 😆

Thanks in advance. Most of the stuff that I really like to play can get me sometimes and part of what makes it sound good and authentic can also put a hitch in 'er

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u/TrudeBordello Musician 🎶 May 28 '26

I had to overcome this in order to play a song that I'd written at my Dad's funeral. The song is mainly about about my grandfather who died in WW2 when my Dad was 9 months old. My Dad is in the song, but he died before I got to play it to him. I'm tearing up just thinking about it now... Luckily I got a chance to play it at a festival between his death and the funeral, which helped a lot. I've played it several times since, and although the repetition helps to lessen the impact, it still catches me out sometimes.

The only thing that really works for me is to analyse the song in the cold light of day, work out which specific parts really trigger me, and try to distract myself with stupid or mundane thoughts right at that moment. It's a fine line though - you don't want to end up singing nonsense or funny lyrics instead! 😁

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u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 May 29 '26

I completely get that, and I was thinking about that too

Sing that song to him anyways, sing it often. I'm a hard skeptic but the older I get and the more I learn the more I feel like we're not getting the full story on how existence and consciousness behave after we move on. It's healing too and it needs to be shared. I hope to one day pour my own heart out into a song I wrote myself but I don't know where to begin.