this song will change your life…
What a great line from a great movie. Natalie Portman’s character meets that of Zach Braff in the doctor’s waiting room in the amazing movie Garden State. She hands him her headphones and says, “You gotta hear this one song, it’ll change your life I swear...”
It is a movie with a great soundtrack. I imagine it being a soundtrack that Zach Braff chose in the way that music can become a soundtrack to our lives.
Music has punctuated my life. One of my great regrets is not sticking with studying music. Instead, it has been my near constant companion.
Only about once a week, does it feel like a track or artist I am listening to is in harmony with my life!
If I am listening to something right now – and I probably am – you can see that being tracked in real-time by last.fm at the bottom of this page. My top artists for the past month are also shown down there.
Music started in an opera house for me
My dad sang in the Cape Performing Arts and Ballet company (CAPAB) for over 15 years. Bizarrely, this gave birth to two of my loves – music and rugby. My Dad was a good rugby player and played for the CAPAB rugby team, somehow even roping in Rob Louw. I was something of a mascot. I also spent a lot of time watching opera and ultimately performed via a walk on part in two – Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. The photo on the left is me on the set of Cavalleria Rusticana with the donkey us kids christened Baby Jesus.
So when I went to school, my pop music knowledge extended to ABBA’s Super Trouper – I think it was the one modern album we possessed other than Hooked on Classics!
Later my dad bought me a compilation cassette tape of hits that included “Eye of the Tiger” and “Drop the Pilot.” My eclectic taste in music was born.
I took music as a subject in junior school for about a year. First recorder (because that’s where we were told you start) and then piano. I was an absolutely terrible student and after lack of practice, my parents were told I should give it up at the age of 9.
There are a few moments in life that I truly regret – that is one of them. My parents had scraped together money to buy an upright piano. I had not appreciated the sacrifice.
But more than that I have regretted while observing music from the sidelines ever since. I sang in the choir and eisteddfods until my voice broke, but since some way through high school when I came to truly love music, I have regretted not learning an instrument.
Most recently I have become intectually fascinated by music. It’s simplicity, complexity, music theory, how billions of people might come up with trillions of combinations of arbitrary notes, yet it is a few that hook us.
It’s never too late
I’m not sure about that – especially when I hardly have a minute in the day. However, I am encouraged at watching the results of older students following a limited amount of daily discipline.
So I recently bought a MIDI keyboard and hopefully I will soon be able to commit some time to regular practice. It is intimidating and has sat threateningly waiting for my impending efforts.
