Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The gift of music

I am very Musically inclined.. Not that I can sing or play an instrument. I have just, for some reason, assigned popular songs to periods, moments, or people in my life. I have a large CD collection and a large numbers of Itunes Downloads. Although I have downloaded several "Albums" and multiple "Singles" from I tunes I really still prefer having a physical CD in my hands or collection.
These songs I have mentally assigned to the aforementioned instances sometimes are deliberate, but many times they aren't. I am unsure if this is unique to me or if allot of people have a tendency to do it. What it has done is given my children an appreciation for music much broader than their peers. My 12 year old daughter knows who Buddy Holly is and mentioned him one day in Social Studies during a discussion of 50's music. All of my children know for instance that the song "The Day the Music Died" by Don McLean (they know the song and artist) is about the airplane crash that killed Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Richie Valens. In fact all of them hated the remake of the song by Madonna.  My 16 year old daughter plays two musical instruments with skill. She came home one day excited to show me that she could play the Cello part to "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles.
 Each of my children have at least one song that is "their" song, my Wife of course has multiple songs because we have been "together" for 31 years now (married for 25). When ever these songs play, I can remember vividly the first time I heard them or the instance they were 'assigned' in my mind.

  Isn't music a wonderful gift...

1 comment:

Little Sister said...

Yes, music is a gift and you are a gifted teacher...of history...music history in particular. For example, I like Kansas and "Dust in the Wind" because of my older brother. I also learned more about logic from you.

Favorite memory- I was about 12, visiting you from FL and had just gotten the new Poison Tape. I was listening to it and writing down the words. You told me that you thought I had become a Christian (or found God..or something)and wondered how Poison fit into that. I said that "I don't listen to the words...just the beat of the music"....I will never forget you saying.."then why do you need to write them down?" Your simple logic helped me realize...I was lying! :)