Just Listen

It starts with a note. With a single press of the finger. But it’s so much more than just a note. It’s a beginning- a prologue if you will. You just opened a new book, and this note is the first page. You add another note; it can be high or low, soft or loud, the same as the first or completely different. It doesn’t matter which, but it is as much a part of this book as the first page. As you add more, they can form chords or stay individual. As each chord and each note is played, they combine with those before it. A melody rises out of the collection of notes, making something unique and special.

A melody can stay just that: a melody. A harmonious group of notes and chords that mix together beautifully. But a melody can also be a song. How are these two different?, one may ask. Honestly, there is only one thing that separates a melody and a song. I mean, you can hum either in the shower, right? And lyrics are not the difference between them. You do not need words to make a song. The sole difference: A song has a purpose. A message that it is trying to get across to every listener. It is its very own story.

Don’t get me wrong; there are very similar songs, almost identical even- just like stories. Still, every one owns something that no other has. A pace, a single note, a volume. But there is something that makes it individual. So every song you sing, every song you hear, listen to the message. If the song has lyrics, they may spell it out for you. But sometimes lyrics hold something that the songwriter wanted the listener to find, that they had to search for. And when there aren’t any lyrics, dig deep to find that story and read it, with your ears. So, don’t just hear songs; find their purpose, read their story. It’s the whole reason they were created.

I will not exaggerate and say that instruments are a gift from the heavens. I mean, is a piano so complicated that it would take pages and pages to explain and identify? Is a guitar so complex that it would take you an hour to read a paper about it? It’s not the instrument’s history, or how it was made, or who built it, but what the instrument itself makes. One word: music.

Music is… I am having a hard time explaining it. I know this, though: it is more than sound. I guess I can’t say this for everyone. This whole time, I have been explaining how I view music. If you comment, you can tell me how you see it. It is true that some people do not have the ear for it. Please, let me assure you I am not saying you don’t have an ear (like that dude in the Bible). But some people, when they listen to music, they do not hear beauty or magic. They hear noise. I am not stereotyping against those people, but I find music just that: beautiful as well as magical. Art- the purest kind.

When I pressed my first key on my first piano when I was 7 years old, my eyes were opened (Or shall I say my ears?). I opened that book, read that first page. I hope that anyone who has the passion for music that I do- I hope they felt that same thing when they opened that book. For all those passionate music lovers out there (whether you sing, play an instrument, or just listen) dig out and read every story in every song.