Music.
Nothing more than specific sound frequencies ranging from 20-20,000 Hz that are picked up by the ear drum, turned into electrical signals, and sent to the brain to be translated into auditory thoughts.
Different frequencies can have whole number multiples or divisions of wavelengths, where the crests of the waves meet every so often, creating what we call harmony.
A "clash" of notes is when the different frequencies have very obscure wavelengths that almost never overlap causing a very unpleasant sound.
From a scientific point of view it seems pretty easy to understand, and if you understand how to counterpoint using this information, then music is fairly easy to compose as well. In fact, I have several friends that compose songs digitally, using computer software, and create whole songs in just a few days, as if it were nothing.
Then you have me. Sometimes it takes me days just to create one melody. But, my problem is that I always strive to find a rhythm that is so unique and different from the rest of the crowd so it takes me much longer than most to compose an entire song.
Everyone can 'hear' music and enjoy it, they can even compose it, but, do you really 'listen' to it? Do you Feel it's movement? Do you Understand it's mood and intent?
Singing up on stage during a performance, I have always been able to pick out the person that is really 'listening' to the music being created. They sit motionless, eyes closed, mouth open. They get goosebumps when a really beautiful section is played.
I know this because I have been that person. If anything, I recognize myself as a real 'listener' of music. I take it all in, I break it down in my head, all the parts, the instruments, the voices, the movements. I close my eyes and I see them visually in my mind. I Feel it with my entire body.
Sometimes during a really beautiful piece, I can feel my heart sink into the pit of my stomach. It is the best feeling in the world.
Music is beyond a doubt the best form of art that God bestowed to man. Many people can paint or sculpt from an image in their head, but, to create an entire piece of music from hundreds of notes and chords out of thin air, is something else entirely.
Ludwig Van Beethoven, my favorite composer, once said "Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes."
This man. He could not get the sound out of his head until he wrote the music down on paper. This man created nine beautiful symphonies, seven concertos, an opera, two masses, thirty-two piano sonatas, ten violin sonatas, five cello sonatas, sixteen string quartets, five string quintets, seven for piano trio, five for string trio, and perhaps a hundred or so other short works. There is no better example of a musical madman.
He is my idol.
I believe the closest thing to hearing the voice of God is music. He speaks to us through the vibrations on the air. He gives the power to create this music to only a divine few on this entire planet, in order to speak to us.
The music speaks to us, it speaks to our soul, our being. It flows through us and within us.
Did you know that right now, your entire body as a whole, is producing it's own unique frequency? A frequency that is entirely and utterly unique to you.
Sometimes I think that's how we subconsciously pick and choose which people we like and dislike.
Remember how I described Harmony? When two or more frequencies have whole number multiples of each other in order to be harmonious? Why can't that be true with our own personal frequencies and the frequencies of others? Have you ever noticed how you can meet someone and even though you may like them and they don't necessarily have any negative characteristics about them, you still have an uneasy feeling when you're around them? Your frequencies may be 'clashing'.
This may be why a close family or a group of really good friends get along so well. Admit it, even your family and friends have at least a few negative characteristics that you hate about them. Why then do you get along with them so well?
Harmony.
How about Love? I mean spousal love of course. Why is it that it just 'clicks' with some people and others it doesn't?
You could meet the most beautiful, amazing person in the world; they have everything you ever wanted in a person to spend your life with, but you just don't feel the 'chemistry' with them. Why is that?
Harmony.
See, Music is more than just a collection of frequencies. Music is life, it's everywhere, and everything has its own pitch, its own aura, its own flow. The earth is one big symphony, never-ending; doomed to play for its audience forever. But with every new person created, a new instrument is added to the orchestra and thus the piece changes slightly, every movement is different from those of the past.
So find your harmony in the world. Be the next Movement.
Compose your own way through the time you have on this earth.
And seek out the person that completes your chord the best.
All the world's a stage, play on it.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Courage.
We need more of it. Period.
It is a characteristic within people that has become withered as generations pass.
Where has the courage gone? Why are so many people of our day so apt to just sit back and take a beating from their opposition? Why do they not stand up for themselves or others? Their beliefs or religions? Their passions? Their character?
Why is it that they allow themselves to be walked on, overpowered, and discriminated against?
It's hard to say, but, they are weak; and I cannot help but to have NO pity for these people. I know so many people with "Emo" personalities. They mope and complain about their problems but never do anything about them. Their problems just fester within their minds, bottled up. It only seems to worsen the situation.
It makes me sick to see people like this. If I ever became one of those mopey people, my mother would slap me upside the head (for those who know my mother, you know it's true).
And I see that more and more people are becoming like this; at an early age too it seems.
Maybe it's the parents? I mean I can't help but notice the difference in parenting from the parents of my mother's age range to people just becoming parents. Sure, every set of parents have different parenting skills and techniques than others, but it seems that there is a sudden lack of discipline and values that the parents of earlier generations worked so hard to bestow in their children. And yes, every generation will have a certain percentage of alcoholic, drug-abusive parents, which is also growing in size. But I have seen people come from very abusive, broken homes and manage to become great, courageous people and live normal lives.
Yet, I see kids come from relatively normal homes and families and turn into the people I described before; I don't understand it.
"My parents don't listen to me","I hate my life","I never get what I want","My parents don't accept me"
Waa waa waa!!! Baby!! Grow some balls (figuratively of course, ladies) and stand up for yourself!!
Stop complaining about how much you hate your life and do something about it. It's YOUR life and YOUR opinions and don't let anyone tell you how to think different.
I will leave you with a quote:
"Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength." ~ August Wilson
Always remember to be thankful for what you have, stand up for it, and be proud to show it to the world.
It is a characteristic within people that has become withered as generations pass.
Where has the courage gone? Why are so many people of our day so apt to just sit back and take a beating from their opposition? Why do they not stand up for themselves or others? Their beliefs or religions? Their passions? Their character?
Why is it that they allow themselves to be walked on, overpowered, and discriminated against?
It's hard to say, but, they are weak; and I cannot help but to have NO pity for these people. I know so many people with "Emo" personalities. They mope and complain about their problems but never do anything about them. Their problems just fester within their minds, bottled up. It only seems to worsen the situation.
It makes me sick to see people like this. If I ever became one of those mopey people, my mother would slap me upside the head (for those who know my mother, you know it's true).
And I see that more and more people are becoming like this; at an early age too it seems.
Maybe it's the parents? I mean I can't help but notice the difference in parenting from the parents of my mother's age range to people just becoming parents. Sure, every set of parents have different parenting skills and techniques than others, but it seems that there is a sudden lack of discipline and values that the parents of earlier generations worked so hard to bestow in their children. And yes, every generation will have a certain percentage of alcoholic, drug-abusive parents, which is also growing in size. But I have seen people come from very abusive, broken homes and manage to become great, courageous people and live normal lives.
Yet, I see kids come from relatively normal homes and families and turn into the people I described before; I don't understand it.
"My parents don't listen to me","I hate my life","I never get what I want","My parents don't accept me"
Waa waa waa!!! Baby!! Grow some balls (figuratively of course, ladies) and stand up for yourself!!
Stop complaining about how much you hate your life and do something about it. It's YOUR life and YOUR opinions and don't let anyone tell you how to think different.
I will leave you with a quote:
"Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength." ~ August Wilson
Always remember to be thankful for what you have, stand up for it, and be proud to show it to the world.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
This I Believe 1
I believe in Love.
Whether that be the Love of one's family, one's friends, one's spouse, one's religion or beliefs, one's self, or one's country; I believe in it. I believe in that Love; in its creation, its drive, its passion, ambition, and complexity. I believe in all its forms, all its glories, yet all its pains. I believe in nothing greater than the absolute power of Love, for there is none. This is what I believe most in this world.
Love, in all its occurrences, has confused, bewildered, yet intrigued me, starting from when I was very young. I could never quite get a grip of its meaning or importance in my life; one would expect a child to be misunderstanding to such a concept as Love. But, something happened in the latter of my childhood that opened my mind to new thoughts and provocations to the sense of Love:
My father, being a man of great confusion to me ever since, died in a car accident late November of 2000.
Death was and is probably the hardest concept to understand as a young child. To be quite honest, it's harder than hell to understand that the person you saw to be your father is gone, dead, and never coming back.
So what? That's it? No second chances? We die and we're gone forever? WHAT'S THAT ALL ABOUT?!?
It took some time and a few more deaths in the family for me to fully understand this part of Love, Death. There is a certain Love for the dead though; their memory, their legacy, lives on in our Love for them after their passing. As long as we remember them and feel their presence in our hearts, they are never gone from this world.
I Love my father, even though I never really knew him completely as a person, I Love him, my mother Loves him, his family Loves him, and he will live on forever in our hearts and minds.
Let's fast forward through a couple years and stop in the summer of 2008, my first Love.
We went to high school together; she was a year younger than I, but that didn't matter to us. I had just broken off a relationship with a former crush that I had lost feelings for and she had done the same. We had always been friends, especially through the school's chorale group which we were both participants in, so being together was natural to us.
A few flirts here and there, our first kiss, a moment, that's all it took, we were together. In Love.
We were each others firsts for a lot of different things; nobody knew us like we knew us.
The next year and a half was the best time in my life. I Loved her, my better half. We were, for lack of a better word, inseparable. It seemed like we were meant to be, we had everything in common; we had the same tastes, same interests, same personalities, it was absolutely incredible to me. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.
Things change.
What happened in the last part of our relationship, what I eventually found to take place in most relationships, is that one of the people changed, she did. I changed too, but she changed more, differently than I did.
We had grown apart, lost connections, lost common interests and goals; we grew up.
We were not special, we were not meant to be. Our dreams, our plans, would never happen; they died when we ended.
It's a pain that most of us have to experience and eventually get over; I'm still in the process. But, we learn from it, we discover some things about ourselves, and grow.
How did I grow? I discovered Love; true, undeniable, Love. My first, my only, my last? Who knows. But I found it; and I know what it is and how it feels to have it. If that isn't an achievement, then I don't know what is. Sure it ended badly, we're not exactly acquaintances anymore; but hey, you know what?, I'd take the pain and sorrow any day, I'd give everything up, just to go back and do it all over again. I regret nothing and I wouldn't have it any other way.
It's all because of Love, my Love; the Love I've received and the Love I have given. Love makes the world go 'round. Most of the time it's wonderful, but sometimes you have to take it with a grain of salt, grit your teeth, and power through.
Love comes back to us, it always does. This I believe.
Whether that be the Love of one's family, one's friends, one's spouse, one's religion or beliefs, one's self, or one's country; I believe in it. I believe in that Love; in its creation, its drive, its passion, ambition, and complexity. I believe in all its forms, all its glories, yet all its pains. I believe in nothing greater than the absolute power of Love, for there is none. This is what I believe most in this world.
Love, in all its occurrences, has confused, bewildered, yet intrigued me, starting from when I was very young. I could never quite get a grip of its meaning or importance in my life; one would expect a child to be misunderstanding to such a concept as Love. But, something happened in the latter of my childhood that opened my mind to new thoughts and provocations to the sense of Love:
My father, being a man of great confusion to me ever since, died in a car accident late November of 2000.
Death was and is probably the hardest concept to understand as a young child. To be quite honest, it's harder than hell to understand that the person you saw to be your father is gone, dead, and never coming back.
So what? That's it? No second chances? We die and we're gone forever? WHAT'S THAT ALL ABOUT?!?
It took some time and a few more deaths in the family for me to fully understand this part of Love, Death. There is a certain Love for the dead though; their memory, their legacy, lives on in our Love for them after their passing. As long as we remember them and feel their presence in our hearts, they are never gone from this world.
I Love my father, even though I never really knew him completely as a person, I Love him, my mother Loves him, his family Loves him, and he will live on forever in our hearts and minds.
Let's fast forward through a couple years and stop in the summer of 2008, my first Love.
We went to high school together; she was a year younger than I, but that didn't matter to us. I had just broken off a relationship with a former crush that I had lost feelings for and she had done the same. We had always been friends, especially through the school's chorale group which we were both participants in, so being together was natural to us.
A few flirts here and there, our first kiss, a moment, that's all it took, we were together. In Love.
We were each others firsts for a lot of different things; nobody knew us like we knew us.
The next year and a half was the best time in my life. I Loved her, my better half. We were, for lack of a better word, inseparable. It seemed like we were meant to be, we had everything in common; we had the same tastes, same interests, same personalities, it was absolutely incredible to me. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.
Things change.
What happened in the last part of our relationship, what I eventually found to take place in most relationships, is that one of the people changed, she did. I changed too, but she changed more, differently than I did.
We had grown apart, lost connections, lost common interests and goals; we grew up.
We were not special, we were not meant to be. Our dreams, our plans, would never happen; they died when we ended.
It's a pain that most of us have to experience and eventually get over; I'm still in the process. But, we learn from it, we discover some things about ourselves, and grow.
How did I grow? I discovered Love; true, undeniable, Love. My first, my only, my last? Who knows. But I found it; and I know what it is and how it feels to have it. If that isn't an achievement, then I don't know what is. Sure it ended badly, we're not exactly acquaintances anymore; but hey, you know what?, I'd take the pain and sorrow any day, I'd give everything up, just to go back and do it all over again. I regret nothing and I wouldn't have it any other way.
It's all because of Love, my Love; the Love I've received and the Love I have given. Love makes the world go 'round. Most of the time it's wonderful, but sometimes you have to take it with a grain of salt, grit your teeth, and power through.
Love comes back to us, it always does. This I believe.
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