Thursday, October 20, 2005

The Power of Music...

Music is a powerful force. Both instruments and lyrics can have an impact on a listener.

Some people write to silence. For me, silence is deafening. At the same time, a lot of background noise, such as a Cardinals game (clears throat loudly), can be too distracting.

I find that listening to music on my head phones while I write, really helps me. I have more control over the volume, the music more effectively blocks out other sounds, and if I choose the songs correctly, they often go along with the scene I'm writing.

I used to sing... Yeah, believe it or not I did. My friends, whom I had to keep awake on late night car trip once, can attest to my wide repetoire of show tunes. I was a chorus geek--at least that's what my husband calls it. Of course, he was a band AND orchestra geek, so he knows one when he sees one. Sadly, I got away from singing in high school and am now so out of practice I couldn't sight read Mary Had a Little Lamb--a little chorus humor for you.

Anyways, I don't know if that is what makes me so drawn to music or not. Sometimes just having my headphones on doesn't work. Because I can still hear my darling husband screaming... excuse me, I stand corrected: yelling (apparently men don't scream) at the umpires, I have to either turn the music up really loud (which is TOO distracting) or I have to use my orange ear muffs or protectors, whatever you want to call them.

They're the things people at airports use to protect their hearing. My earphones hug my ears and are small, so the protectors fit right over them. It's nice, because then I can listen to my music nice and low--like I like it--and the protectors block out all of the screaming... I mean, yelling.

Thank God it's the only time he ever yells. Boy, he's got some lungs on him.

April

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