One of my major passions, along with german, architecture, law and computers, is singing: I've been singing, humming, and generally annoying my family (okay, I'm kidding about the annoying them part) ever since I can remember, but I've been doing some sort of singing since first grade all the way through the end of college, minus maybe a total of 2-3 years somewhere in there.
If you want to hear some examples of my singing, I have some MP3s of my singing.
I had a *wonderful* madrigal group in ninth grade at Wooster School, and a *fantastic* and superbly educational time in Chamber Singers during my freshman year at Bryn Mawr: we even made a surprisingly good CD.
I was in the Bryn Mawr-Haverford Extreme Keys, a women's a cappella group at Bryn Mawr College, since my second semester, freshman year. We made a CD called Shocker in January 1997, which was my sophomore year. My senior year (1998-99) I held the position of Pitch (i.e. Musical Director/President) as well as Treasurer, Business Manager, and Webmaster (my archival copy of the site is here). If you want to hear a bit of my voice, I sing the harmony (the sort of quiet soprano part over/following the melody) on our (MP3) version of Ani DiFranco's Both Hands. My disclaimer is that it was recorded over one of the only two times I've ever lost my voice, so bear with me. I still managed to sing..but only barely. It made recording the CD quite difficult, not to mention frustrating.
I also sang in the BMC-HC Chorale during my senior year as an Alto I. I would sometimes play around by trying to sing the guys' parts, since I could reach most of the Bass's parts... in Extreme Keys, I tended to sing whatever part was necessary: most often the lowest ones, since few members can reach the lower parts and still project (hey, even I can't project really low very well), and quite a few can sing mezzo-soprano. I've been blessed with a 3+ octave range, from rumble to squeak ;), but it would be even better if it didn't sort itself into at least two fairly distinctive "voices."
So-- I absolutely love singing, but as soon as I start to get a bit too full of myself, someone comes along who blows me out of the water: hey, it keeps me humble :). It's all about having fun and enjoying yourself. I tend sing when I'm profoundly happy or profoundly sad, and often in between. And what a convenient instrument-- you don't even have to carry anything around! Just as long as I doesn't get sick...