I Got the Music In Me

I went to take a shower late Saturday afternoon and saw that my son had left an iPod dock in the bathroom. So I grabbed my iPod, plugged it in and cranked some tunes while I was taking a shower. I haven’t listened to music while in the shower in years and it made me feel happy and kind of like a kid again. Afterwards, I felt a little silly for getting a bit giddy from just listening to music while taking a shower and it sounds kind of stupid now that I’m writing it down, but music holds many memories for me.

A song can sometimes bring me right back to a place I was when I heard it the first time, or when something important happened in my life. Sometimes a song will simply remind me of a time when I was feeling down and it changed my mood or made me feel better. And yes, there are even songs that kind of bum me out a bit as I mentioned here. But I remember cranking up the tunes before I went out on a Saturday night, setting the mood for my evening. That’s what I was remembering while in the shower and it made me smile.

I’ve always loved music, even if I couldn’t play it. A few of my brothers played the drums, but I figured out fairly quick that I was not a drummer. I always liked the bass and the guitar, but I never was able to get one. I hung around with a few guys who played guitar and I’d pick it up some times, but I didn’t spend enough time on it. One friend taught me to play the first three notes of “Smoke on the Water”! That’s right, three notes was the extent of my guitar playing. 

Hopefully, it doesn’t seem from my other posts that my older siblings always gave me a hard time, because they didn’t. They actually taught me about a lot of good things growing up, especially music. I got to listen to a lot of good music when I was a kid, courtesy of my older brothers and sisters. We had just about all the Beatles albums, early Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk Railroad and a lot of others, too. I still remember the first record I bought; the single “Victoria” by The Kinks. I was definitely influenced by what they listened to. When I got to be a little older, like early teens, I wore out Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Led Zeppelin II, The Who’s Tommy and Chicago’s Chicago Transit Authority. We had what I consider to be some of the best music of the 1960’s and early 1970’s. I still listen to a lot of classic rock today.

Today, I still want to learn how to play guitar. In the meantime I can listen to my kids, who are both incredible musicians and singers, and my wife who is an incredible singer, too. Or, I could just crank some classic rock tunes on my iPod. Even if it’s not Saturday night.

The House is Buzzing

The house is buzzing. Now before you get all worried, we’re not being attacked by killer bees, nor is this something out of a Stephen King novel. No, the house is buzzing in a good way – with music.

My son has been playing guitar for about five years and is actually very good. He’s up in his room, strumming away on his acoustic. He plays songs by bands that he listens to, he plays songs he’s written himself and sometimes he just plays stuff until he hears something he likes and then it becomes a song, too. It is quite ironic that we used to have to tell him to practice and even hold the threat of discontinuing lessons over his head in order to get him to play. He hasn’t been taking lessons for over a year now and he plays all the time. Go figure.

My daughter is up in her room, playing her electronic keyboard. And yes, she is very good, too, after playing for about three years. She writes a lot of her own songs, both words and music. She’s a little more private than my son and doesn’t like anyone to hear her songs until they’re pretty much complete so a lot of times she plays with headphones on. But today she’s playing free and easy.

There was always a buzz in my house growing up, too, but it was different. The buzz then was because there were a bunch of us in the house, sometimes playing games together or watching TV together and sometimes because we were all doing separate things and competing for space, time and volume. If someone had music on in the living room and others were playing a game in the dining room, both were getting drowned out by the other. So the music was turned up louder, then the people playing the game got louder, then the music was turned up louder, and so on until finally someone blew up or Mom told the person listening to the music to put on headphones. It wasn’t bad, it was just kids learning to get along, learning to compromise.

But this buzz today is wonderful. Somehow two distinct songs being played in two different rooms seem to fit together. Not the whole time, yet it is amazing how they seem to blend into one so much. I feel like I could listen to this all day and not be bored. As I get older, I definitely like things a little quieter than I used to. However, this “noise” as some would say, is good. It is soothing. It is a proud parent listening to my kids using their talents and abilities, and doing something they want and love to do. It sounds good, but I feel even better, sitting on the couch one floor below, with a big grin on my face and a warmth in my heart.