Music To My Ears

Rise and shine everybody!

It's a beautiful day with the sound of birds chirping and the golden rays from the morning sun makes one in awe with His creation. Too bad I got a tiny yard at home to take a morning walk and to breathe in the crisps of the morning air. I sounded a little poetic, eh? Oh well, when one gets older, one tend to be a little nostalgic.

I was doing a little morning walk on my own this morning, not so much as in exercise but rather enjoying the quietness of  a Sunday morning and the chill air. Passing by one house, I heard an old song at a distance. An old song my grandma used to love. It brought me back beautiful memories when she was still around and it brought tears to my eyes. She was a beautiful person and I have never stopped loving her to this day. In her quiet way, I knew she loved music but she didn't make it obvious like I do.
I love music. Remember in one of my blogs I said I wanted to be a jazz singer. It's true. I was really into music but back then, families usually were not as open as today's, so I kept it to myself and sing lullabies to my children. Hey! That kind of work, you know. At least two of them were like me, have good ears over music. Ariff, my eldest, got a good singing voice. And Sophie. She even sang the old song whenever she heard me humming. Full lyrics, mind you. Even I would get lost midway,forgot the lyrics. I mean.

When I was young, I was crazy over Barry Manilow and Barbra Streisand's songs. Remember Manilows' I write the song & Somewhere in the night? I would play it over and over again.I never get tired listening to that song. And Streisand's Memories and Somewhere? I feel this Somewhere song can only be sang by her alone. Soulful and it reached deep into my heart. I loved James Ingram Just Once. It has a powerful impact on me. Not only the lyrics but the song itself. I have our local singers of which I truly admire them. There was Sheila Majid, a petite singer yet with a beautiful voice who sang mostly jazzy songs. In contrast to her, there was Yusni Hamid. I am sure many don't know who she is. She wasn't a popular singer then but she has deep smoky voice. And she sings Malay Traditional (Melayu Asli) songs superbly.
Then came Whitney Houston. And I thought to myself, if God were to ask what I want in my life, I would without doubt picked to have a voice like hers. I was so crazy over her that I sometimes envisioned I looked like her.

I understand and feel music as if it's flowing within me. I was never a musician, never played a single instrument at any one time in my life, yet I appreciate it like a pro. Besides writing, music is my numero uno love. Whenever I watched any singing program from reality show namely American Idol or The Voice or anything, I can pick those with voices I feel promising and by the end of the show the judges would pick the same. Not all but most of it. See how I blend in with music.

Listening to Richard Clayderman's Ballade pour Adeline or Kenny G's Forever In Love makes me weep all the time. I used to own a cassette tape of these two artists and placed it inside my car. Whenever I am inside the car and feeling depress, I would play it over and over again. Silly me, I knew it will make me cry and yet I kept  playing it. It's beautiful. It's timeless.

I can even appreciate the soprano's Pavarotti's song, though I don't understand a single word in his songs. But I loved it all the same.

I can't say the same for ballet though. To me, it's plain boring. Nor the arts. People can fetch million and millions of dollars for these paintings but I don't see anything within those paintings. I don't know what's the big fuss over Monalisa's smile. Someone should portrait me as well so that I could give a mystery look something like squinting my eyes and frowning with a smile at the corner of my mouth. Try and crack that look, people. Will I worth millions?
 I just don't see any significance in buying those child-like scribbling called painting. I don't have it in me to appreciate these kind of arts. To me it's a waste of money. If one were to bring me and walk through an art gallery, I think I would find a corner and take a nap while others browse around.

Besides Quran reading (for Muslims), listening to good music can help us loosen up and relax our body and mind. As long as it isn't that incoherent heavy metal or top of the voice screaming sound, I am fine by it all.
I always and forever will love music. To feel the music in depth will bring the fine feeling within us.  At least I feel that way.

That's all for today friends.
 
Love,
Rose
21st.July '13