I spent a good portion of my teenage angst years holed up in my bedroom with the door closed playing song after song after song on my guitar and singing every piece of music I could possibly get my hands on. Music was a solitary passion for me. Though I’d sing in front of people, guitar was a skill that I committed to all alone.
As I’ve gotten older, that’s changed. Music for me in my adult life is a community effort. My job is to inspire an audience to sing along and to create a mood for those willing and sometimes unwilling participants. I love what I do. Music is the root of all good things in my humble opinion.
This weekend, I had an opportunity to revert back to those years of Beatles fake books and U2 songs that I memorized in my youth. Those were the songs that got me through every troubling time that any teenager would struggle through and that helped me celebrate all the beauty of the world, as well. My family was away this weekend, and as I found myself all alone, it was no holds barred. I sang loud – so loud, and man, it felt so good.
The truth is that I could play for hours if I regularly had more time to myself. I’m certain that I would be a far superior musician, but of course, I wouldn’t be a wife or a mother either, and there’s nothing that beats that.
Perhaps music really is meant to be a solitary practice, and perhaps that’s why I’m so good at being alone. There’s nothing that makes me more focused and contemplative than those hours when it’s just me and my guitar, and even though I love my Wife/Mommy life, I’m recognizing just how much I miss my guitar time.
This summer, I spent an evening with an old guitar-playing soul sistah. She lives in guitar playing paradise surrounded by beauty with views of the ocean and an arsenal of 6-strings. It was on that night that I suddenly found myself re-learning an old favorite. I always loved playing “Under the Milky Way” by the Church, and for some reason on that visit, I dusted off that tune and brought it back to life. It’s been on my mind ever since, and after this one weekend alone, it’s mine again. So, I’m sharing it with all of you to inspire my other guitar-paying buddies to also go out and learn how to play this beautiful song. Rock on y’all, because it’s so very necessary!
