Musical Thoughts

As I sit writing this, While My Guitar Gently Weeps is playing on the stereo. It was my first Beatles number and is my father’s favourite song. I prefer Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence myself because I identify with the song almost completely.

The thing is, I’ve been listening to music since I was a baby. My mother used to croon me to sleep using songs by ABBA or Harry Belafonte. My father introduced me to Pink Floyd at the age of seven and from there I guess I never really looked back. I was off on an adventure- deciphering lyrics, making out melody and in general I was lost amidst the voices and sounds. I even wanted to be an acoustics engineer at one point of time- someone who works with different sounds and creates some of his own.

I won’t lie- I do not know the technicalities of music. Ask me about scales and I will draw a blank. Ask me about Led Zeppelin and I’ll go on for hours. I can discuss AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater and Steven Wilson with ease, but I would fail horribly at trying to reproduce their music on an instrument.

The fact remains that music is much more than sheets or lyrics or melody. It’s a combination of these and the end result can be magical. While My Guitar Gently Weeps just finished by the way and Bohemian Rhapsody is currently playing. I pause here and I wonder- what if some kid in Japan is listening to the same song right now? It’s quite possible! Music can be used to communicate feelings, messages and thoughts. It unifies people, like the song Imagine said when it spoke of a brotherhood of man. There are thousands of other songs like Imagine such as I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder which spread the message of peace and harmony among us.

Music is transcendental. It has a unique way of touching your heart. It’s a combination of pulses which find their way to your ears and end up becoming food for your soul. Music is powerful- it can make you very happy, very sad or take you on a journey into someone’s mind.

I like to think that music is the language of peace, of protest and of love. What about you?

The Bilge Master