I know the lyrics for the first verse (the only one that gets sung) but I don’t have any vocal control to speak of. My former neighbor who was a music major said I’m not tone deaf because I can pick out songs by ear on the mandolin, I just can’t get my voice to hit those notes. Like I know they’re wrong. so not well.
It’s not in my voice range, nor many people’s range for that matter but I know all the words of the first verse. The rest of the verses I need a lyric sheet.
Pretty well, I guess. I’ve done a few performances before various sports games (high school/college, nothing impressive) and I didn’t get booed out of the stadium. A lot of it comes down to picking the right note to start on.
When I was 10 years old, I told my mother I wanted to take piano lessons. Our church music director was also a teacher. She said, “I don’t take kids as students.”
I sat down and played the melody to the Star-Spangled Banner by ear with no music and no mistakes. Then she said, “I don’t usually take kids as students.”
Quite well but I also have training and have done it quite a few times (though mostly as part of a choir, only a couple times solo). It’s a surprisingly difficult song. An octave and a half range is no joke and the melody itself can be awkward. My old choir teacher used it as her audition piece to figure out where everyone was going to be placed. Which, at the time, I didn’t really get, but I do now.
I have sung this song every night to my kids. I start with this then “America the Beautiful.”
My oldest is 14 youngest is 2. So I sing to the littlest ones now. But then the older two were little this has always been my bedtime song selection.
Well, in that I know all the lyrics and I will get the notes and pitches correct. But not to the point where anyone would particularly want to hear me do it. I’m an okay singer but nothing to write home about.
Very well. I don’t like to sing solo, but I am an experienced singer in a capella groups, classical, jazz, and barbershop quartets!
Thought 1: The middle part runs high, so start low in your voice, so you do not bleed when the rockets glare and the bombs burst.
Thought 2: Sing it moderately quick. Do not sing it slowly. It’s not a waltz, but think ‘waltz time’.
Thought 3: Sing it quick, because almost every performance of the Star Spangle Banner is interrupting someone’s sporting event, or delaying the speech of someone important. Never delay someone from drinking their beer.
Really well. Sometimes I sing it in the car when I’m driving by myself! I’m supposed to stand and put my hand over my heart, but oh, well.
I will estimate that I am in between Bobby Vinton (who forgot the words, but remembered the tune) and Whitney Houston, who was iconic. Roseanne Barr shall not be mentioned.
I know the lyrics. It’s a pretty rough song for the average person to sing though – there are a lot of long lines and high notes, with an octave and a half total range. You need to develop excellent breath control to get through the long lines and hit all of the notes at the same time… there’s a reason why soloists often sound “breathy,” and why the lines sung most powerfully are usually the shortest.
That’s why it’s so much easier to sing along in a crowd than to sing solo. You can pause for air whenever you want, you can choose to sing the high OR low notes instead of the full melody, etc.
In other words, not well. I cannot sing it as written. I can sing the basic melody, and some pauses, and just sing the highest notes an octave lower though.
Between having no knowledge of the song’s notes, having no singing skills, and remembering a total of 2 lines, my ability to sing it is less than poor.
I’m a pretty able musician including voice, and I do know the words. But it is a piece with a large range and so it’s pretty important to start at the right place. I often have to switch registers in the middle where it gets high.
But I love to sing it and find it annoying to not be able to sing along at events where it is being “performed” by a celebrity or whatever. Occasionally they do a good job but usually I feel they just switch it up to be different.
Pretty well. I can’t necessarily hit the high notes in their intended register but if I drop it down a register just for the high note I can get by. I do know all the words and the tenor and bass parts of the harmony but that’s just because I was a choir nerd back in the day who used to sing it for the high-school football games a million years ago.
Edit: i used to know the 2nd through 4th vs too although those are spottier in my memory now. I could probably stumble through them if I were singing with a group.
Not at all, maybe, I don’t know? I know some of the words but it’s not like it’s sung everyday in school. Though many schools do say the pledge of allegiance every day or whenever there’s a special event; but the vast majority of cases I’ve seen the National Anthem (the Star Spangled Banner) is mostly sung during sparingly, mostly during special occasions. Then again in during most professional and quasi-professional college sports games it’s always sung; and can be sung before high school (or K-12) sports games though my school growing up didn’t emphasize that because it was a private parochial school.
I don’t have the vocal skills to sing the notes/pitch perfectly, but I know them probably 95 percent-plus. I only know the lyrics to the first stanza. I’ve never met anyone who knows the lyrics to all four stanzas.
I can sing the alto line. We learned in high school choir to be able to sing it in four part harmony, a capella. And somehow 15 years later I still remember my part.
Well enough I got asked to do it for a big Babe Ruth Baseball league game once as a teenager. So, one of the better ones in my age range and town, for all that’s worth.
In grade school I could’ve sung it perfectly, because we’d perform it. It’s now been 15 years since I graduated high school and I hardly ever hear it anymore, so if I try to sing it now, I can’t remember the exact words in some parts or I mix up the order of certain parts. I still remember all the words to the pledge of allegiance, though!
It’s actually a pretty difficult song to sing for the average person. So I know all the words and I can carry the basic tune but would never say I could open a sporting event of any kind
I was a choir kid in high school, so I know the melody, a soprano descant that’s probably too high for me now, and two different alto/tenor harmony lines.
Basically, no matter what key they start in, I can sing along if I want.
Do I know all the words…yes. It got brow beaten into us as kids. Can I sing well…no lol. I would sound like a cat being tortured by fingernails on a chalkboard. But that is not due to that specific song I just have a negative amount of musical aptitude.
I usually just move my mouth while other people are singing it… ive got the tism’ (non-tylenol related), and to me words mesh together when sung, it sounds like ‘oh, say can you see nah nah dondon don light, meh nah proudly we nah nah nah mah na na na-‘
My husband and I could sing it between us, but not alone. I can’t get to the low B (without a LOT of vocal fry) and he couldn’t hit the high F, but together we could crush it
Not very well. I’m not really a singer and it’s not an easy song to sing. Side note: Best rendition I ever heard by far was by this 12 or 13 year old girl at an Angels game 20 plus years ago. Didn’t remember her name but often wondered if she ended up being famous. Second side note: I favor making “God Bless America” the. National anrhem
I had it memorized by the time I was in second grade (my dad used to be REALLY big into NASCAR, and I’ve always had a knack for memorizing music). I have the range to sing it well enough.
Pretty well but im a music teacher and i literally teach it to my students. There was a big push when I started teaching called The National Anthem Project to teach children the national anthem. One big hurdle is that many performers add elaborate melismas so audiences often don’t even attempt to sing along.
Comments
Poorly
If you asked me to sing it solo, I’d probably sing on key but start from the wrong point.
If im singing along, no problem
I know the lyrics and can sing along to music, but I can’t sing a capella
Not great. I actually have some singing experience, but it’s hard to sing the Star Spangled Banner really well.
I can’t sing for shit lol. Also I only know the first verse, like most people.
About as well as Peter Brady.
Better than Roseanne but not as well as Maya Rudolph
Not at all. And thankfully it’s not required.
I know the words and basically melody. I am also terrible singer and it’s a near-impossible song to sing well, so…
With zero difficulty
I know the lyrics for the first verse (the only one that gets sung) but I don’t have any vocal control to speak of. My former neighbor who was a music major said I’m not tone deaf because I can pick out songs by ear on the mandolin, I just can’t get my voice to hit those notes. Like I know they’re wrong. so not well.
It’s not in my voice range, nor many people’s range for that matter but I know all the words of the first verse. The rest of the verses I need a lyric sheet.
Don’t know it
Pretty well, I guess. I’ve done a few performances before various sports games (high school/college, nothing impressive) and I didn’t get booed out of the stadium. A lot of it comes down to picking the right note to start on.
Getting the lyrics right? 10/10. Everything else you mentioned? Less than that, it’s a hard song and I’m not much of a singer.
Lyrics? No problem. Hitting the high notes? No way.
One hundred percent.
When I was 10 years old, I told my mother I wanted to take piano lessons. Our church music director was also a teacher. She said, “I don’t take kids as students.”
I sat down and played the melody to the Star-Spangled Banner by ear with no music and no mistakes. Then she said, “I don’t usually take kids as students.”
I can’t sing any song “well”, although I know the words to many of them (including the Star Spangled Banner).
I can sing it, but absolutely no one will want to hear that.
I know the lyrics and the tune and can get through it without straining anything.
Well I know the words, but I can’t sing for shit.
I know all the words and am a decent singer, but it’s a hard song to sing well.
I usually start too high to hit the high note.
I just tried and surprisingly I’m better at hitting all of the notes (even the high ones) than I am at remembering all of the lyrics.
No one knows the subsequent verses. I would love if someone kept going after the first verse at an event.
As good as I can for a non-singer. I can’t tell you my voice is gonna sound great, but it’ll be passable.
Quite well but I also have training and have done it quite a few times (though mostly as part of a choir, only a couple times solo). It’s a surprisingly difficult song. An octave and a half range is no joke and the melody itself can be awkward. My old choir teacher used it as her audition piece to figure out where everyone was going to be placed. Which, at the time, I didn’t really get, but I do now.
I can mouth the words at a ballgame.
I have sung this song every night to my kids. I start with this then “America the Beautiful.”
My oldest is 14 youngest is 2. So I sing to the littlest ones now. But then the older two were little this has always been my bedtime song selection.
Better than I can sing happy birthday
Do I know the notes, pitch, and lyrics? Sure. I know the first verse, at least. I can imagine it in my head.
Can I sing it? HECK NO!
In the showers I’m a solid 9.8 out of 10 no matter what I’m singing.
I know the lyrics. Can’t sing at all
The first verse or stanza or w/e its called but the rest is difficult. I try to listen to it a couple times a month.
It’s a fairly difficult song to sing well; it spans 1.5 octaves. I think Jack Black did a great job here, he’s a truly impressive singer.
Well, in that I know all the lyrics and I will get the notes and pitches correct. But not to the point where anyone would particularly want to hear me do it. I’m an okay singer but nothing to write home about.
Lyrics, no problem.
Pitch? I’m not a professional singer. The Star-Spangled Banner is a very difficult song.
Don’t have the vocal range. Know all the verses, however. Does that give me a passing grade?
Almost perfectly. Played it more times than I could count in band
mediocre
Not even in the shower.
It’s a solid 6.5 out of 10 in difficult.
I’m fairly confident on the lyrics, and pretty comfortable with the actual melody and pitches.
I’m confident that I could give a solid, if likely entirely unremarkable, rendition if I have a good 5 minute warm up and lyric check.
Id be able to sing along but you wouldn’t want me to. I probably wouldn’t want a singer trying to do my job though so we are even.
Very well. I don’t like to sing solo, but I am an experienced singer in a capella groups, classical, jazz, and barbershop quartets!
Thought 1: The middle part runs high, so start low in your voice, so you do not bleed when the rockets glare and the bombs burst.
Thought 2: Sing it moderately quick. Do not sing it slowly. It’s not a waltz, but think ‘waltz time’.
Thought 3: Sing it quick, because almost every performance of the Star Spangle Banner is interrupting someone’s sporting event, or delaying the speech of someone important. Never delay someone from drinking their beer.
Very well actually. I have vocal training and along with the choir I’m in sing it before a minor league baseball game about once a year.
Poorly while only saying like 1 out of 5 words and just mumbling the rest and getting lost somewhere in the middle so I just skip to the end bit
Probably shitty as all hell, but hopefully better than Roseanne.
YOU want ME to SING????? 🙂 My wife would kill me by the time I hit say can you….
peace. 🙂
Semi decently if I can do some vocal warm ups first. Also only the first verse.
100%.
Of course if you can already sing, a 1.5 octave range isn’t hard.
Really well. Sometimes I sing it in the car when I’m driving by myself! I’m supposed to stand and put my hand over my heart, but oh, well.
I will estimate that I am in between Bobby Vinton (who forgot the words, but remembered the tune) and Whitney Houston, who was iconic. Roseanne Barr shall not be mentioned.
Normal people can’t sing it well. It’s why you always need a trained singer to sing it at events
I know the lyrics. It’s a pretty rough song for the average person to sing though – there are a lot of long lines and high notes, with an octave and a half total range. You need to develop excellent breath control to get through the long lines and hit all of the notes at the same time… there’s a reason why soloists often sound “breathy,” and why the lines sung most powerfully are usually the shortest.
That’s why it’s so much easier to sing along in a crowd than to sing solo. You can pause for air whenever you want, you can choose to sing the high OR low notes instead of the full melody, etc.
In other words, not well. I cannot sing it as written. I can sing the basic melody, and some pauses, and just sing the highest notes an octave lower though.
About as well as the speech synthesis chip (VLM5030) in Double Dribble does.
Pretty good. Years of choir in school and church have honed that particular skill.
Poorly. You’re not supposed to breathe the last phrase and EVERYONE does
Between having no knowledge of the song’s notes, having no singing skills, and remembering a total of 2 lines, my ability to sing it is less than poor.
My favorite song is “America the Beautiful”, but I know all the words to both.
Very poorly. Can’t sing.
I can’t even sing Happy Birthday.
I know the words perfectly and can reproduce the tune much better than most because I used to play in a band in school, but I’m a lousy singer.
I’m a pretty able musician including voice, and I do know the words. But it is a piece with a large range and so it’s pretty important to start at the right place. I often have to switch registers in the middle where it gets high.
But I love to sing it and find it annoying to not be able to sing along at events where it is being “performed” by a celebrity or whatever. Occasionally they do a good job but usually I feel they just switch it up to be different.
I’ve gotten pretty proficient at Chris Stapleton’s version. I’ll never claim to be nearly as brilliant as him, but I’m proud of what I came up with.
Very poorly
It’s not a difficult song to sing.
You just have to make sure you don’t start too high.
I can sing it quite well. Not professional level, but very respectfully.
Do I know the notes? Yes
Can I hit the notes? No
Pretty well. I can’t necessarily hit the high notes in their intended register but if I drop it down a register just for the high note I can get by. I do know all the words and the tenor and bass parts of the harmony but that’s just because I was a choir nerd back in the day who used to sing it for the high-school football games a million years ago.
Edit: i used to know the 2nd through 4th vs too although those are spottier in my memory now. I could probably stumble through them if I were singing with a group.
I know the lyrics/melody, but I’m not exactly a talented singer…
Extremely well. I figured everyone did tbh
Most of us don’t do this so not well
It’s hard to hold the notes long enough to sing it solo, but can sing along in a group setting just fine. Start at alto.
I do enjoy asking Jose if he can see.
I’ve heard a lot of people replace “o’er” with “for”.
Pretty good. I have sung it at least a hundred times for various events.
Not at all, maybe, I don’t know? I know some of the words but it’s not like it’s sung everyday in school. Though many schools do say the pledge of allegiance every day or whenever there’s a special event; but the vast majority of cases I’ve seen the National Anthem (the Star Spangled Banner) is mostly sung during sparingly, mostly during special occasions. Then again in during most professional and quasi-professional college sports games it’s always sung; and can be sung before high school (or K-12) sports games though my school growing up didn’t emphasize that because it was a private parochial school.
I don’t have the vocal skills to sing the notes/pitch perfectly, but I know them probably 95 percent-plus. I only know the lyrics to the first stanza. I’ve never met anyone who knows the lyrics to all four stanzas.
All four stanzas, no prob. Singing, well, I used to be better. But it’s a difficult drinking tune to begin with.
I never learned all the lyrics and kinda suck at singing, so not at all.
I can sing it pretty well for an immigrant
I know the lyrics pretty well, but rest isn’t going to go well for me, just like any other song I’d try to sing
Pretty well compared to most but not professional entertainer well — years of piano lessons and band.
Very well. Not Whitney Houston well, but enough to be asked to sing it at a sporting event.
I’m Canadian and can sing it pretty good. I guess I got used to hearing it from all the hockey games my dad I would go to when I was a kid.
My wife (American) was quite amused when she first heard me sing it from beginning to end lol.
What a great national anthem you all have!
I and most of the folks I grew up with know the words and the music, and can sing most of it well enough…but few can handle the high notes at the end.
I know all the verses even, including the “diss on the British” one.
I know the Sousaphone part really well.
No one can sing the Star Spangled Banner well. It’s just too difficult. But thanks for using the correct adverb.
About as well as Leslie Nielsen in Naked Gun.
I just don’t have a good voice period.
Almost no one can sing it well
I know the lyrics, but I don’t have any musical talent whatsoever, so not well.
I can sing the alto line. We learned in high school choir to be able to sing it in four part harmony, a capella. And somehow 15 years later I still remember my part.
Well enough I got asked to do it for a big Babe Ruth Baseball league game once as a teenager. So, one of the better ones in my age range and town, for all that’s worth.
The high parts are not gonna be great, but I’m loud AF.
In grade school I could’ve sung it perfectly, because we’d perform it. It’s now been 15 years since I graduated high school and I hardly ever hear it anymore, so if I try to sing it now, I can’t remember the exact words in some parts or I mix up the order of certain parts. I still remember all the words to the pledge of allegiance, though!
Lyrics 100%
Notes 99%
It’s awkwardly all over the range in terms of pitch, so I have to drop an octave part way in and then go back up an octave toward the end.
When I was a teenager, I was a second soprano and could sing it pretty comfortably, but I’m in my 40s now and I’m more of an alto.
It’s actually a pretty difficult song to sing for the average person. So I know all the words and I can carry the basic tune but would never say I could open a sporting event of any kind
Pretty well, since I took classical voice training.
All the verses?
I was a choir kid in high school, so I know the melody, a soprano descant that’s probably too high for me now, and two different alto/tenor harmony lines.
Basically, no matter what key they start in, I can sing along if I want.
Do I know all the words…yes. It got brow beaten into us as kids. Can I sing well…no lol. I would sound like a cat being tortured by fingernails on a chalkboard. But that is not due to that specific song I just have a negative amount of musical aptitude.
About as well as Enrico Pallazzo
I know the lyrics—it’s a pretty short song—but I’ve been told I have absolutely no ear for pitch.
All the verses. And I can make Kim Jong Un stand, put his hand over his heart, assuming he has one, and cry.
The best. I’m amazing.
I usually just move my mouth while other people are singing it… ive got the tism’ (non-tylenol related), and to me words mesh together when sung, it sounds like ‘oh, say can you see nah nah dondon don light, meh nah proudly we nah nah nah mah na na na-‘
My husband and I could sing it between us, but not alone. I can’t get to the low B (without a LOT of vocal fry) and he couldn’t hit the high F, but together we could crush it
I’d say pretty okay but I don’t know all 4 verses.
I’m a singer, and I’m pretty good at it. But it is not an easy song to sing.
Well enough that a friend and I auditioned to sing it at the opening of a (minor league) baseball game and were invited back.
The key is to start off as low as possible so the high notes hurt less, lol
I can’t sing it worth a shit but you know who could knock it out of the park???
MARVIN GAYE.
I know the lyrics and tempo but objectively can’t sing well.
Not very well. I’m not really a singer and it’s not an easy song to sing. Side note: Best rendition I ever heard by far was by this 12 or 13 year old girl at an Angels game 20 plus years ago. Didn’t remember her name but often wondered if she ended up being famous. Second side note: I favor making “God Bless America” the. National anrhem
About as well as I can sing other songs, which is not very well at all.
Not at all I’m a terrible singer
I had it memorized by the time I was in second grade (my dad used to be REALLY big into NASCAR, and I’ve always had a knack for memorizing music). I have the range to sing it well enough.
Pretty well but im a music teacher and i literally teach it to my students. There was a big push when I started teaching called The National Anthem Project to teach children the national anthem. One big hurdle is that many performers add elaborate melismas so audiences often don’t even attempt to sing along.
I could but no one would like to hear it
It’s virtually unsingable, because of the range; I vote we scrap it and use America the Beautiful as the national anthem.
I know the words.
I definitely know the lyrics and can sing it just fine. It’s really not that hard to sing if you aren’t trying to show off.
Just sing it in a key you are comfortable with and don’t act like you’re alone on the mound at the world series.
I’d like to think I can sing it quite well, and it’s not an easy song to sing.
Pretty well.
I know the words, but I don’t have the vocal range
About as well as anything else.