Melody of life



Yoz folks, today, i'm gonna talk about music. Yesh... music music music.

Music plays a very important role in my life. If i were to compare my life to a cup of water, music would be the colouring, the flavour, the fizz... ... the stuff that transforms that cup of water into a nice refreshing bitter sweet cup of beverage. To all you alcoholics out there (btw u noe who u r, don't drink so much), in other words, music would be the tonic to my gin, the coke to my whiskey or if u like it cold and hard, the ice cubes to my vodka.

Music gives my life its flavour. It brings out my mood. When im happy, i listen to feel good songs. Uplifting notes, easy beats, bubble gum lyrics. No angry rythms, deep dark lyrics or wailing solos. Life all around seems to smile with the songs. Nothing seems to get me down. Missed a bus or train? so wad.... more time to smell the roses and stuff.... or so says the songs:)

When i feel down and out, tough day at work, sucky bosses or jackassed people around. The songs in my world start to change. Spiteful lyrics, fast demanding rythms and beats, loud deafening electric guits... ... Think papa roach last resort or everenescene going under and bring me to life. (However, i must say i do not like all the rubbish nigger ganster raps. Too much vulgarities and all about decadance..... bleh!) Such songs brings out the anger in me. Adds fuel to the fire. Suddenly everything starts to pick a fight with me. Even the innocent cat crossing my path seems to do it on purpose to slow me down.

When life seems to turn its face the other way and things start to fall apart leaving down and depressed, songs like stand by me by oasis starts playing in my zen neon. " Stand by me, nobody knows the way its gonna be..." Songs seems to suggest a cry for help, a yearning of someone to be there, a hope for a warm embrace of sorts. Wailing guitars, draggy vocals. " i tear my heart open, i sew myself shut. My weakness is that i care too much..." taken from a song called scars. You start to notice things that seem to be missing in life. " Where are the flowers in the trees? Are they too as sad as me?"

Jazzy tunes, mandarin love ballads and english love songs go on in my earphones when im in a lurvvy dubby mood (which rarely happens nowadays :( ). Nice sentimental tunes, meaningful lyrics. Soulful steel acoustic strings coupled with bright and yet meaningful vocals. Trumpets and double bass in nice slow french jazz. " Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars..." "Stars shining bright above u.... night breezes seem to whisper i love you... birds singing in the scygamore tree.... dream a little dream of me..." I still remember one of the best dates i ever had happened at this jazz bar called jazz @ southbridge. The mood, the jazz music, my date, our drinks... ... everything just seemed to fall in place :).

I also listen to ballads when i feel outta love and heartbroken. These ballads are more of heartbreak songs and songs of unreciprocated feelings. Fan yi chen's i believe, Guang liang's tong hua, Tao ze's pu tong peng you and ai hen jian dan... the list goes on. Somehow you suddenly pay special attention to the lyrics and start crying deep in yer heart. Bus and train rides seem to take extra long. Clingy couples nearby add to the torture. sigh...... The intensity of the heartache you have seems to rise and fall with the songs and you desperately wish someone could just come along and give you a nice warm hug and tell you that things will be fine. "... there are many things that i would like to say to you but i don't know how..."

Yesh music brings out the life in us for it is the sound track to our movie of life.

This brings me to why i learnt to play the guitar. Since music brings out my life, making music amplifies it. To me, playing on my guitar is a way to express myself. When im happy, i play cheery tunes like qing fei de yi. Late at night when my whole family is asleep and im alone on the couch and start thinking about the stars, fate love and life, i quietly pick up my guitar and pluck songs like when u say nothing at all or qing tian. Sometimes even the occasional fly me to the moon. Down and out, i jam songs like creep or just go wild and make dreadful noises on my 6 stringed fren.

Making music serves as an outlet to vent my emotions. Be it happy, sad, angry, in love or out of love and many other funny undescribable feelsings that get washed up in the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions inside of me. To me, strumming and squealing ( a pity that i cant sing for nuts...lol) songs on my guitar is a more subtle, soulful and expressive way of picking up a loud hailer and screaming my feelings out loud. It's more constructive in a sense too. Well it sure beats reaching out for that bottle of vodka, whiskey, ginn or bourbon and drinking myself silly. At least my liver wont suffer for my heartache right? :p .

My guitar teacher asked me wad was my favourite guitar song today. I told him wonderwall by oasis. He said something like " Wah you so backdated are... Nowadays youngsters... ...". Deep down in my heart, i replied "because it fits my mood right now."

So wad kind of music are you in the mood for tonight?