Music

You’re listening to your favorite song. Can you hear it? What instruments do you hear? Is someone singing? What are the words saying to you? What is the music telling you? How do you feel when you’re listening to it? What does music do to you? How important is music in your life?


I personally don’t have a favorite song...I don’t even have a favorite genre of music, as my tastes are quite unique...My mood depends upon what music I listen to at that time...But also, my music can set the tone of my mood... When I’m feeling angry, sure I can turn up Metallica and head thrash about the room and jump up and down... (I’m sure you have a visual now.) Instead, I turn on Amos Lee or some good Ole' Otis Redding (Got to love that soft, slow bluesy sound) and get lost in the soulful lyrics of the song... These sounds..the words...seem to get through to me, to calm me down...

When I'm in a particular good mood..I, more times than not, go to my "Smiles" playlist on
the Ipod ( and yes, the playlist is actually called "Smiles") and belt out "Benny and the Jet's" by Elton John or "Rockin Robin" by Bobby Day...Whatever mood it may be there is a genre of music that will cater to it...Happy, sad, angry, mad, mellow, giddy, romantic..even nostalgic...

Everyone has that one song that can take them back to a moment in time...to a certain memory...and for that 2 or 3 minutes its like you are right back there..reliving that memory all over again...(I bet your thinking of a song right now, aren't you?) It may be a memory of heartache...or a sweet memory filled with the innocence of your youth..For example, some of my personal favorite memories are whenever I hear Hank Williams "There's a tear in my beer" I can't help but to think of when I was younger and my family and I would be driving to Birmingham to visit my Grandmother..the whole way to her house my dad would sit in the drivers seat singing those old Country songs and my brother, sister and I would sing along with him..It never failed..every trip we were going to sing that song...

Another great memory is...whenever I hear "The Twist" by Chubby Checker...I think of my mom cleaning the house and grabbing anything she could get her hands on and dancing (a broom, vacuum, door handle, etc..) most of the time it was one of us kids and she would teach us all the old dances of the 50's and 60's..( The Mashed Potato was my personal favorite).. :)

Whenever I hear Travis singing Conway Twitty's "Lay you down" it takes me right back to our first date...when he picked me up in his "Big Red Truck" as I used to call it...I was so nervous..he seemed so at ease...That song came on the radio and I can remember him starting to sing it...I dont even think he realized he was singing out loud due to the fact that he is so comfortable singing...but in that moment, I feel in love with his voice that night...It gave me goose bumps all up and down my arms...we have been together every since that night...

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, music is defined as: vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony...

I actually think it is best summed up in this quote by Frederick Delius: Music is an outburst of the soul... =)