Alright, buckle up folks, because today I’m sharing my adventure tackling the “University of West Virginia Fight Song.” It wasn’t as straightforward as I thought it would be, but hey, that’s why we learn, right?
So, I started off with the simple goal: I wanted to learn the WVU fight song. Why? No good reason, really. Just felt like a fun challenge. My first step was, obviously, finding the lyrics. Quick Google search, bam, right there. Seems easy enough, right?
“Fight Mountaineers” Lyrics
- Fight, Mountaineers!
- Fight, Mountaineers!
- Fight for West Virginia,
- True to gold and blue!
- Stand up and yell,
- And fight, you team,
- Fight, Mountaineers!
- Fight! Fight! Fight!
Okay, got the words. Now I needed the actual music. Youtube was my next stop. Found a bunch of versions – marching band, acapella, even some weird techno remixes. Settled on a classic marching band recording. Figured that would be the most authentic.
Then the hard part started. Trying to actually learn the song. Turns out, just reading the lyrics and listening to the tune isn’t enough. I tried singing along, but I was totally off-key. Sounded more like a dying cat than a fight song. Embarrassing, to say the least.
I decided to break it down. Focused on one line at a time. Listened to it repeatedly, then tried to mimic the melody. Slowed the playback speed down on Youtube. That helped a little. Still sounded rough, but progress is progress, right?
After a few hours of practice (and probably annoying my neighbors), I could kinda sing the first few lines. The “Fight Mountaineers!” part was stuck in my head, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s catchy! But the transitions between lines were still tripping me up.
Next I grabbed my old keyboard, which hadn’t seen the light of day in years. Tried to pick out the melody on the keys. I’m no musician, so it was pretty clunky. But it helped me understand the structure of the song better. I could see how the notes went up and down, where the emphasis was supposed to be.
Kept practicing, kept listening. Eventually, I managed to cobble together a somewhat passable version of the song. It’s still not going to win any awards, but I can sing it (mostly) in tune now. And I even know some of the history behind it – apparently it was written way back in 1925!
My takeaways?
- Learning a song is harder than it looks.
- Breaking things down into smaller chunks is always a good idea.
- Youtube is a lifesaver.
- And most importantly, don’t be afraid to sound terrible while you’re learning. Everyone starts somewhere!
So yeah, that’s my “University of West Virginia Fight Song” adventure. It was a fun little project, and now I have a new song to belt out at inappropriate times. Maybe I’ll tackle another fight song next week. Any suggestions?
