I love music. I sang
all through school, and though I haven’t sung formerly in years, if you sneak
up on me in my backyard while I’m gardening, you might have to endure my
version of “Summertime” from Porgy and
Bess, or “Stormy Weather.” You could
catch me singing a tune from My Fair Lady,
West Side Story or even a hymn in
Latin. All those years ago, standing up
on risers, reaching for a high C, eyeballing the conductor while our voices
swooped and fell like invisible birds, songs seeped into my pores. At the
end of those long ago performances, I felt like I could fly.
With that background, it may surprise you to know that I rarely listen to music. I have 600 songs on my
I-tunes playlist but I only reach for it once in a while. I don’t crank the tunes when working around
the house, and while sometimes the radio is on when I drive, more often I travel
in silence. I like to hear what is
around me, the cark of a seagull, the wash of the sea, the scurrying of my
own rabbit thoughts. As for writing,
I know a lot of folks swear by their play lists, but I was afraid of the distraction.
Until last week. A late
bloomer always, I’ve just begun listening to Pandora Radio. What a luxury. That first time, I selected one of the most lyrical performers
I know. Next thing I knew, song after
song of evocative music from similar musicians poured down into the depths of
me. I loved it so much, I sat down and
worked on my current project while plugged in to Pandora. Two thousand words later, I was a
convert.
In less than a week, I am more than eight thousand words
further along on my manuscript. Generally I'm pleased if I write five-hundred words a day. But with the ear buds in, I swear inspiration came more
quickly, the words jostled each other in my brain in their rush to get out. The
answer to a huge hole I’ve been pondering for months presented itself to me as
I wrote and wrote and wrote. It was if the music floated me on a river through a forest lush with creativity.
Suddenly,
I understand writer sound tracks. The music carrying me along fits
with the theme of my story and in the
morning I wake up now, not only anxious to write, but to tune in, too. Today, it seems to me that a song reaching to the depths is the same as a poem, like umami for the mind. Or a blessing--a combination of thought and nuance that floats its way down like a feather and brushes your heart, just right.
What do you listen to when you write?
