Muse-ik = Aural Enjoyment

What is it with harmony that can be felt? How can I listen to the Beatles (Abbey Road, Rubber Soul) or the Stones Let it Bleed and actually feel the textures and vibrations? I feel good, soul stirred, rejuvenated, at least when I stop singing long enough to listen.

A lasting musical memory is buying a 45rpm ( yeah, i know) of John Lennon's Woman in like 1981. I was 8 and couldn't tell why I loved it. He was an old man to me and only been dead a month or so. The loss of this voice didn't really mean anything as I hadn't learned what he was saying yet. But I listened over and over to the sound, without question.
I still have this record and can hear the longing, sorrow and devotion in those words and arrangement; teaching me at an early age a fraction of the dynamics of a relationship. But it's the sound that is etched in my brain.

I'm kinda musically inclined. It's not a talent to match pitch by ear but it's what I do. Sheet music - forget it. I have no connection there. Matter of fact, when I played the french horn in a symphonic band, I'd look like I was playing a new arrangement the first time through to hear the notes but then I'd have it. Yeah - and I was always last chair even though I played all scales in tune my first week of picking up the instrument. Whatever. Let me hear it. I just want to hear it.

What about my voice or my sound? We all have a sound or resonance. What can it tell us? Kirtan, while a Hindu tradition, is a devotional chant session with notes repeated and held to connect to the vibration throughout your body, like the vibration of holding the Om sound. You don't just say it, you feel it and acknowledge what you feel as release of chakra blockages and admit your prana. Lots of mental imagery and sanskrit but, for me, not worship. Sometimes I really don't know what I believe, you know that?! But I want to feel the sound inherent to me as I hope we all do.

While I'm working on that and the 386574 other things I want to do in life, I'll keep listening to the sounds and harmonies that make me happy. Pure.

BTW - I was just told that I would make a great high school teacher. That my personality is perfect!? I thought that was funny.