Music – Quietly Passing By

February 23, 2021

Leave It To Me…

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Leave it to me to find a great way to motivate me to write, and then NOT write for five days! How perfectly…me.

In my last post I talked about FRED and explained how I have converted this useful tool from the physical to the digital world. I’d created a FRED tool in Notion using some templates I had used for keeping track of my 21 days of fasting posts. The tool should work great, and it sort of does, except I am great at ignoring things. World champion caliber great at ignoring things. So I did.

Now it is, as I said, five days later with no writing done. This is me trying, to quote a lyric from Taylor Swift. Yes, Taylor Swift. I’m no country music listener, but her “stealth” albums from last year, evermore and folklore were pretty good. There are some gut-wrenching songs there, chock-full of longing, heartache, anger, resentment, regret, love, hate, and indifference. The songs are simple. Her collaborators are excellent. Of the two, folklore is the harder album to listen to, so far, anyway. None of the songs on evermore have punched me in the gut like ones on folklore.

Take for example, tolerate it. Swift gives us a glimpse of a decidedly one-sided relationship gone wrong, of an odd kind of unrequited love. She gives and gives to the relationship, “like…a kid”, but finds her efforts simply tolerated, not appreciated. She knows she deserves better and hopefully doubts her conclusion. But in the end, she is still asking where the man she once thought loved her went, and deciding that she is done, removing “this dagger in me”. Ow. Great song, but it is not very “kid friendly” as it includes some profanity in the chorus. Just FYI…

Or, even more gnawing at the soul is coney island, where two halves of a broken whole wonder what happened to “them”. The both miss “the fast times” and “the bright lights” of their relationship. One is afraid they simply no longer can relate to, or in some way broke their partner. A thick morass of regret and disappointment pervades the song, as the other partner wonders if they emphasized their work at the expense of their love, and if there is any chance at redemption. The National’s Matt Berninger’s rich baritone voice is a striking contrast to Swift’s light and smooth tones. It makes the dual internal conversations in the song unmistakable and remarkably dissimilar. The overall effect of the song is to jerk the listener into a “darkest grey” contemplative state, wondering themselves what went wrong? Can I fix it? …even if their own relationships are fine. Powerful.

After hearing one of the songs from these albums on the radio (I think it was evermore) and then diving into all of the tracks, I’ve given them quite a few listens. They get better every time I hear them.

I didn’t actually mean for this post to turn into a music reaction post, but it most certainly has. I really just meant to jump on here and write a few words saying I had not been hit by a bus or anything, after waxing so effusively over my implementation of FRED in Notion, and then NOT writing. Now that I have written a music reaction post, I can go record my work in FRED and feel satisfied that I put words “on the page” today. Now if I could only put words into the pages of my novel…

Featured image: Photo by Harshit Sharma on Unsplash

January 30, 2021

21 Days of Posts – Day 21 – How Does Worship Music Affect The Service?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This is day twenty-one of twenty-one days of posts between January 10th and January 30th of 2021. This is the last day of the fast. Hello again to those who read previous days, and hello to those of you who may have stumbled across this post “out of order”. You should go back and read from Day 1, for a few reasons. It explains why I am doing this. It is the first one, and I may make reference to something in it in this post. It also has a list with each day’s post (once they are available) and you can jump to whatever topic you are interested in. Thanks for reading!

We made it! Day twenty-one has arrived and this is the last post in this series. This is the last official day of the fast, but the church doesn’t consider the fast over until noon tomorrow. That’s fair. I’ve written many times how music affects my mood and my thoughts, but this post will deal with how music affects the worship service, at least for me. Not everyone will feel the same way and some may feel that I am focusing on the wrong thing, but this is how I feel, so I thought I would share.

January 27, 2021

21 Days of Posts – Day 18 – Music Can Be Addictive? Yep

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This is day eighteen of twenty-one days of posts between January 10th and January 30th of 2021. Hello again to those who read previous days, and hello to those of you who may have stumbled across this post “out of order”. You should go back and read from Day 1, for a few reasons. It explains why I am doing this. It is the first one, and I may make reference to something in it in this post or a later one. It also has a list with each day’s post (once they are available) and you can jump to whatever topic you are interested in. Thanks for reading!

I’ve always felt that listening to certain passages of music was highly therapeutic. There are many piece of music that I would declare were helpful in either reinforcing or diminishing certain emotions and moods. Some music is so good, you want to listen to it over and over because it gives you actual physiological “chills”.

January 24, 2021

21 Days of Posts – Day 15 – The Effect of Music on the Likeability of a Show or Movie

Reading Time: 4 minutes

This is day fifteen of twenty-one days of posts between January 10th and January 30th of 2021. Hello again to those who read previous days, and hello to those of you who may have stumbled across this post “out of order”. You should go back and read from Day 1, for a few reasons. It explains why I am doing this. It is the first one, and I may make reference to something in it in this post or a later one. It also has a list with each day’s post (once they are available) and you can jump to whatever topic you are interested in. Thanks for reading!

We’re in the home stretch now! This is the last week of the fast and this is day fifteen. I chose this topic for today after realizing that some of my favorite shows and movies are not necessarily the best written, produced, directed, or acted, but they had fantastic music producers. Sometimes, the music producer is simply building on top of a great script, cast, director and crew, but sometimes, the music producer is the only thing keeping the show or movie in the memories of those who watch it.

January 21, 2021

21 Days of Posts – Day 12 – My Favorite Music

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This is day twelve of twenty-one days of posts between January 10th and January 30th of 2021. Hello again to those who read previous days, and hello to those of you who may have stumbled across this post “out of order”. You should go back and read from Day 1, for a few reasons. It explains why I am doing this. It is the first one, and I may make reference to something in it in this post or a later one. It also has a list with each day’s post (once they are available) and you can jump to whatever topic you are interested in. Thanks for reading!

We’re now at a post I have been looking forward to writing. I could fill pages with my favorite music, because I like lots of music, but I’m going to put some restrictions on this favorite list.

January 18, 2021

21 Days of Posts – Day 9 – My Moody Music

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This is day nine of twenty-one days of posts between January 10th and January 30th of 2021. Hello again to those who read previous days, and hello to those of you who may have stumbled across this post “out of order”. You should go back and read from Day 1, for a few reasons. It explains why I am doing this. It is the first one, and I may make reference to something in it in this post or a later one. It also has a list with each day’s post (once they are available) and you can jump to whatever topic you are interested in. Thanks for reading!

Day 9! Thanks for sticking with me! Today’s post is all about my “moody” music; the music I turn to when things are just not quite as they should be. I think I’ve mentioned the fact that music is a big part of my life. I have music for every mood, including when I am not “feeling right”. Some of my music transcends different playlists and emotional states, particularly between my calming music, which I babbled about on day six and my moody music, which I will detail here in this post.

January 15, 2021

21 Days of Posts – Day 6 – My Calming Music

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This is day six of twenty-one days of posts between January 10th and January 30th of 2021. Hello again to those who read previous days, and hello to those of you who may have stumbled across this post “out of order”. You should go back and read from Day 1, for a few reasons. It explains why I am doing this. It is the first one, and I may make reference to something in it in this post or a later one. It also has a list with each day’s post (once they are available) and you can jump to whatever topic you are interested in. Thanks for reading!

Music has a deep, irrevocable influence over me. It can encourage me, excite me, anger me, and even calm me. I have different types of calming music, chosen based on what type of music I want to listen to at that time. If I don’t want to hear voices, I pick instrumental music. If voices are OK, then some type of vocal music. To really bliss out on vocal music, I tend to pick pieces that are not in English. Latin, French, even Russian all work to sooth me. Not having to process the vocal sounds, while still hearing their exquisite tones is an amazing balm.

January 12, 2021

21 Days of Posts – Day 3 – My Driving Music

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This is day three of twenty-one days of posts between January 10th and January 30th of 2021. Hello again to those who read previous days, and hello to those of you who may have stumbled across this post “out of order”. You should go back and read from Day 1, for a few reasons. It explains why I am doing this. It is the first one, and I may make reference to something in it in this post or a later one. It also has a list with each day’s post (once they are available) and you can jump to whatever topic you are interested in. Thanks for reading!

I love music. Anyone who has read any of my posts relating to music knows that. I love all kinds of music. I like music to be playing pretty much any time except when I am asleep. Then it tends to bother me…

One place I like to have what I call “my own music” is in the car. I hate being dependent on the radio to provide me with music during my short commute back and forth to work. There is no skip or back button anywhere for the radio. Needless to say, I vastly prefer to have my own music in the form of an iPod in one of our cars, and a USB thumb drive in the other.

Why so particular?

January 10, 2021

21 Days of Posts – Day 1 – Give Me Patience…Now!

Reading Time: 4 minutes

I’m serious. I want patience now.

Now!

Alright, I won’t get patience now, I get it. Before I discuss that, let me welcome you to 21 days of posts, 2021 edition. I did this last year in January as part of my annual fast. The experience was good, so I decided to do it again this year, with a couple of twists.

I covered a variety of topics last year, from faith discussions to my favorite bands. This year, I am limiting my main topics to these three – faith, writing, and music. Under these main topics, I will have seven subtopics each for a total of twenty-one topics, one for each of the twenty-one days. I’ll rotate through the topics, starting with faith, then writing, then music, then back to faith, and so on.

January 9, 2021

It Starts Tomorrow…

Reading Time: 2 minutesTomorrow begins 21 consecutive days of posts on my blog. This endeavor is part of my annual fast. I was successful in this last year, so I hope I will be again. I have determined all of the topics I am going to write on, but not the order.

I am limiting my main topics to three items this year – faith, music, and writing. I will rotate through these topics, starting with faith on day one, then moving to writing on day two, then music on day three, then back to faith on day four until the 21 days are ended. In addition, I am also attempting to journal every day for 21 days during this time, which will be private and not available for public consumption, unless my journal entry wanders across one of my planned post topics. I hope to do 300-500 words for each journal entry, but I am going to be flexible on this, as I am more concerned with the blog posts.

Other items of my fast include refraining from visiting news sites, social media, and similar websites that tend to take up a lot of my time. I hope the time I gain from avoiding these sites is adequate to give me enough time to write my post every day and make an entry in my journal. I am using Notion to write my journal, and sometime after the fast is over, I will write an article on my experience using it. (Note to self – put this on my publication calendar)

Abstaining from the sites mentioned above will leave me somewhat ignorant of current events, which at this point is probably a good thing. The world, our country, and many other aspects of life are in a total mess right now anyway. I know I won’t totally avoid some information and events, but the more I can leave out of my daily thoughts, the better.

Following this course over the next 21 days will leave little time for writing in my fantasy novel, but I hope the time away will help me move forward once I start back at it. I have some daunting tasks ahead of me, including continuing to world build, develop characters, tie together my narrative and make sure that the story moves along and makes sense. I have 100,000 words written in my first draft and I expect to do at least 50,000 more to come close to completing the book. I hope and pray that I can stick with this project starting in February. I really need to finish a book.

I encourage you to drop by the for next 21 days as I post each day. Each entry will be written, edited and posted on the corresponding day, so they may post late in the evening, but I hope to always finish before midnight, so that each day has a post. It will be challenging, fun and interesting for me, and I hope it is for you also, dear reader.

Featured Image: Photo by Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash