03 January 2013

The Joy of Music

A Gaelic song has floated through my mind when I wake up the past couple mornings.  Singing in Gaelic is not on any of my list of to-do's nor do I have any plans to add it.  In fact, the closest I came to learning Gaelic was purchasing a Language disk and listening to it a couple times.  

What has been happening is editing, revising, and reading.  I listened to music during NaNoWriMo, in particular, CCR.  And music by Celtic Thunder has been added to my playlist.  It is one of these that has been floating through my mind, Heartland.  Not that I've played it any more or less.  

One thing I've noticed is I'm happy upon waking and the chorus is floating through my brain.  The first time it happened, I thought that song sounded familiar.  Then yesterday, I remembered Celtic Thunder.  Hmmm.  Galway Girl is playing now.  

The songs are bringing back memories of "the old days" when people in the village used to get together and sing, play instruments, mostly drums, and guitars.  A few played piano and only about three had one.  Our house contained a "piano room" where my dad would play songs.  He taught us how to play a couple.  I don't know the names.  He'd sing.  My first born son has a keyboard and my second born son has an electric bass.  There are recorders, drumsticks and a thousand CD's in the house.  Music.  

It wasn't until I had kids of my own that I found out he and his brothers went about singing songs for pay when they were younger.  "The Holmes Brothers."  He's the last one still walking this earth.  Ninety years old, he is.  Or will be in a couple months.  He asked me the other day if I could sing "Twelve Days of Christmas" without stopping.  

I was driving at the moment.  "If I could stand and breathe proper, I could."  He shook his head.  Well, sitting all hunched over, I found myself running out of air and not holding the notes.  Of course, he searched high and low for this particular version.  It's on a tape that we listen to while driving to and from town.  Course, the song plays twice, so I have to sing it at least twice.  Getting better at remembering how to breathe while singing.  Is that why I can talk nonstop when I'm of a mind to?  

I wonder if that chorus will be floating through my brain when I wake up tomorrow.  Come to think of it, what am I dreaming to have that song in my head?