Had to laugh. I bought a pre-amp booster, not a Rooster, to ‘big-up’ the volume of my old 1970s dynamic Shure SM58 USA built microphone. This specific dynamic microphone, used in my Mac home studio set up here, sounds like a distant whispered voice somewhere across the Universe when being recorded on. Useless without such ‘modern booster energy’ applied. So was pleased that its now increased volume/sound will now be adequate for future recordings.
I sent this audio below to my brother to listen to. No explanation in typed words. Just in the sung presentation. He thought it was going to be a new song. And when he realised, ‘Nope!’…he laughed too.
It made me think of the thousands of musicians on stage or in a studio standing at the microphone sound check before a live gig or recording. Is ‘Testing, Testing, 1,2,3,4’ used by everyone! Why not just sing…
Then I thought of the four possible lyrics you could choose to substitute the 1,2,3,4 choice. Man! It was a hard choice from initial choices aplenty. All my quick attempts falling short miserably. And in essence, that is what song writing is about. To get an iconic and profound opening group of introductory lyrics for a song is a little gift from the heavens. To sing four opening words or more words for a phrase to fit the 1 to 4 space rhythm and make an impact. Opening song lyrics that go straight to a listener’s heart, pull on those heartstrings and resonate emotionally with specific impact is really difficult. A lightbulb lyrical moment in how to get the right vibe.
Have a go at it. Choose an opening lyric line yourselves to start up the rest of a song’s story possibility. No limits to four singular notes either. You can jump outside those notes sung here and produce 5,6,7 different lyrics in the opening here for the rest of the song.
This is the loveliness of songwriting. The Wording Lyrical World is your oyster.
Gray Summers 
this post made me smile and laugh out loud. I never understood why people say “testing 123” — I mean, I do, I know it’s to confirm that everything is working before starting something important. then one day a sound guy told me that as a rule during mic check you must never ever go beyond 123 — if you get to four, the drummer will start playing. x
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That made me laugh about the drummer. As a bass player I would play my first note on the 4 and then be behind the band by one note/beat throughout the whole song and not actually realise it. That’s bass player jokes for you. Old Shep here in the comments says there is actually a song titled ‘Testing 123’. I took a look on YouTube. The official video is awesome with amazing chalkboard artwork. Good song too. Cheers cookie 💫
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Crystal clear as advertised 👏🏻…Barenaked Ladies have a tune by this name with a cool video.
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Loved the song and chalkboard video Shep. Looked on YouTube. You always introduce me to new stuff. It’s great hearing different bands you point me/us to.
I can’t remember if I spoke or sang a little ditty for Testing 123 back in the days. Memory is rubbish. It’s great to be able to use the iconic SM58 again now. Got an American original one too. Cheers Shep.
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I love this, Gray! Ha! Being from a C.B. Radio business family, we always checked our mics that way… then on air we followed with “breaker breaker” which I always found curious too!
Laughing now about all that! Great find on the rooster booster!
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I had a friend who had a huge mast in his garden for his C.B. radio interest. He spoke to people around the world too. Very exciting in those early days without the modern technology that currently exists where you can contact others at the drop of a hat nowadays. Also. A long distance phone call back then would cost a week’s rent! I can’t remember if he used ‘breaker, breaker’. But I now want to search for that pop song about C.B. radio. Cheers Sheila.
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Just looked on YouTube. The song is called Convoy and trucker culture uses the ‘breaker, breaker’ so as not to interrupt ongoing conversations. It’s to say that you are ready for a conversation if anyone is interested. Love this sort of thing.
The Rooster Booster, its new name now, can also be used with the guitars I believe. That’ll be interesting. The M audio interface currently produces muddy sounding electric guitars when they are plugged in directly.
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Excellent! Yes, Convoy was a favorite movie in our house when I was growing up. My dad, maternal grandfather, uncle, and several cousins were truckers. So, all that was the culture I was raised in. No wonder I wanted to be a DJ, dig in the dirt to build roads, etc. I wanted to do so many different things! Ha!
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Love this, thank you! 🙂
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This music recording and songwriting is back to what I used to do back in the 1970/80s. So a nice interesting pastime in retirement. Pensioner music. 😊 Thank you too.
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