I Love Music
I only began playing an instrument because I thought it was a cool thing, and because a schoolmate in grammar school was really good and could play. So I thought, I want to do that! When I heard people sing, I thought, 'I want to do that too'. So I finally tried guitar, but it was too hard and I gave up. Then, when I was 13, I heard a really simple song on the radio, and decided to try to learn it. And so it began all over, and guitar became my main instrument (I'm really a drummer, but my parents were not having a drumset).
But the reason I started playing was that I was a huge music fan, and found emotionally charged music that spoke to me. It was all a part of a magical age of discovery in things musical for me, and got me writing whole songs and arrangements, including the vocals. I learned that I wasn't the fantastic singer I thought I was back in grammar school when I belted out on of the leads in the Pirate's of Penzance. And guitar didn't come to me quickly or easily, but I liked to play and see what I could come up with, so I progressed just by sheer time spent, and love.
I also started writing lyrics back then, and was as much into writing and drawing as music. I see all the aethetically based creative platforms as closely related, and I got a lot from being into all of them. But music has been the one thing that has risen to the fore. Personally, I think it's because the payoff is so immediate. For example, it's easier to make three chords, or even one note stand on it's own and be like magic in the air, than a lone, disembodied paragraph, or phrase. Writing reminds me a lot of sculpting, as so much composition and structure can come to bear. The same can apply to music, but I can create a complete musical work in less than 3 minutes and be satisfied with it (relatively satisfied perhaps, I'm never totally satisfied) And every time I play it, I can alter and change it, and make it breath, flow, and pulse in different ways.
And thus, it is close to my heart, as are many works by others. So many bands and artists that inspire. And without them to turn to, without the avenue of release and escape from the everyday grind and grind of grand mal and petite mal existential angst, I would be...who knows what. It has saved me, thank the gods for music.
