As I stood quaking in middle of the live room, a big pair of headphones clamped to my ears and all eyes on me, my first thought was: "What on earth possessed me to do this?"

I am hardly known for my singing - not in a good way anyway - and I imagine recording studios to be for proper musicians whose tunes are worthy of being subjected to hours of professional tweaking.

My second thought was: "Why oh why did I choose to sing Tears on My Pillow when I could have stuck with an easy Beatles number?"

Tears on my Pillow is all varying pitch and drawn out notes, not a song designed for a novice voice like mine.

But it was not a day for self-doubt.

I had come to the Crown Lane studios in Morden to try my unskilled hand at recording a track.

Run by former music teacher John Merriman, 28, the new studio gives people the chance to record, edit and master their music, and even get artwork created for their albums and singles by a local designer.

It can be used by anyone - from professionals to those just starting out, from people wanting to record a special song as a gift, to those whose musical ability has never been tested beyond karaoke. I fell into the last category.

But once the pianist, John's younger brother Phil, was seated at the keyboard, and John had given me the thumbs-up through the window of the control room, I had no choice but to start belting out the tune in my own way.

And as soon as I started singing, I was pleased to find my nerves melting away.

I had a few minutes to warm up, while I got used to hearing my own voice loud in my ears and tried to iron out any remnants of Kylie's version of the song.

John shouted a reassuring "You're sounding great!", which I almost let myself believe, before hitting the record button.

With music swelling in my ears, it was easier than I expected to throw myself into the experience.

A couple of takes later, John ushered me in to the control room to play back my offering.

My voice blared out into the room in all its wavering, warbling glory. On a positive note, I stuck to roughly the right tune. But on the down side, what I heard completely stamped out any faint hope I still held of making it big in the music industry one day.

John would hear none of my self-bashing.

"It sounded really good," he said. "You did the whole thing in one take with very few mistakes or tuning issues, so it won't require much editing."

My track will of course need a bit of work before it is ready for an audience.

John will magically remove the sound of any breaths or rustling pages, and any bum notes will be adjusted using the miraculous Antares Auto Tune - a Godsend of a program used by musicians everywhere. It can even retune a live performance as it happens.

And in a few days time, John will post me my very first - and no doubt last - shiny CD of my own recording. I expect it will be stashed into a drawer somewhere never to resurface, but I know I will never throw it away.