“The music never stopped”

 

(The Grateful Dead 1975)



Not someone who is gratefully dead...

 

... more a case of someone who is grateful, not to be so!

 

 

As I have, previously alluded to, music constitutes a very large and important part of my life. 

 

This is not an entirely new form of behavior... it has been a characteristic of mine, since early childhood. Hence, the above Grateful Dead quotation, is rather appropriate!

 

As we will see though, aspects of it, have however been affected by consequences of my accident. 

 

Cutting to the chase...

 

My involvement with music, now takes several forms. Namely...

 

·      Listening


·      Playing


·      Composing; and


·      Recording

 

So, first:

 

·      Listening to it

 

Listening to recorded music, takes up a lot of my time.

 

Being a “man of a certain age”, I don’t really go for streaming.

 

In any event, I like my musical interests to be represented by something tangible.

 

I therefore own many hundreds of CDs, and my collection is forever-expanding!

 

What has changed, post head-bump, are many of my musical tastes. To an extent, this accounts for my great spending on CDs over the last few years ... many old recordings are rarely listened to, and I feel that my collection should more accurately represent what I really want to be listening to.

 

My tastes (while quite varied) tended to be quite genre specific, and were very much influenced by those, of others around me.

 

To move on from this, I have discovered (and bought!!) a lot of music that I wouldn’t have even considered “in the old days”.

 

For example, I now enjoy ambient techno, modern jazz, and much more “classical” music.

 

Now here’s a real confession...

 

I would previously have been entirely dismissive of artists, whom I believed (or largely imagined!) to be purveyors of throwaway pop.

 

With the encouragement of an old friend though, I have recently discovered, and thoroughly enjoy listening to, both Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift (seriously ... I think that much of her music is fantastic!).

 

I don’t think that I’ll be wearing one of these, anytime soon...




 But you never know about this!

 



So why have my tastes changed?

 

My simplistic answer would have been that, whether we like/dislike certain music is determined by an emotional judgement that we make on it – how does it make us feel?  My psychological function of emotion is, now a bit knackered – hence, different judgements.

 

I then read a little about a relatively new field of study and debate called “neuro-aesthetics”. Having barely understood a word of what I had read, I decided not to “go there”!

 

Hence, 2 simpler suggestions:




·      Our tastes change anyway, in accordance with ongoing developments/experience


·      I have more time now, to explore new material; and


·       My relative (and self-imposed) social isolation, now reduces any sense of peer pressure.


And now... 

 

·      Playing it

 



 

I play flute, guitar and synthesizer (and a few other things).

 

As mentioned before, I have more time on my hands. And spend (without exaggeration), hours a day, playing them (including a couple of hours this morning!)

 

I suppose that a negative consequence in this area, is a limited opportunity to play music with others, and in public. 

 

On reflection, its absence is largely a result of the isolation, that I mentioned earlier.

 

Well, if it bothers me so much, do something about it!

 

And, onto the new stuff:

 

·      Composing

 

Not songs, but instrumental pieces.

 

I am hardly prolific – maybe one short piece per year, but it is nevertheless, a completely new activity and a source of pleasure and sense of achievement.

 

This has probably arisen from a search for new activities and yet again, more time in which to pursue them.

 

Having never done it before, I worked the negative assumption that I couldn’t do it.

 

Well, having faced so many challenges over the past few years and having overcome many of them of them, I am quite keen on setting myself new ones.

 

“You never know until you try!”

 

And finally...

 

·      Recording

 

Yet another, completely new thing for me.

 

I guess that it goes together with composing and no longer playing in public. It is some form of record of what I have been able to produce.

 

I am lucky enough to have built up a fair amount of recording equipment/software, with which to practice this activity. I mean, who doesn’t have a front bedroom that looks like this?



My grandson, might however, ask the same question!







Not a great deal about brain injury – more a record of some ways in which I spend my time.

 

On reflection, quite an unusually positive post!

 

I’m sure that I can make up for that, next time!

 

 

 


 

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  The “star” of this post is my eldest son. As you might recall, he is an actor.   This Christmas, I had the delight of seeing him in the Royal Exchange Theatre’s Christmas presentation.   It was a theatrical adaptation of the Noel Coward film, “Brief Encounter”.   Despite its immense acclaim, I have never seen the film, nor had any burning desire, to do so.   I did, though, thoroughly enjoy the play, and might check out the movie, accordingly.   First, I really took to the story, with its bittersweet connotations.   For those who know the story, here’s a question for you...   Is it a happy or sad ending?   I accept that the course of action taken, was the “right” thing to do. Nevertheless, I tend towards “sad”.   Perhaps I am, intrinsically immoral?!   More important than the story though, was the immensely high standard of the acting  - and that includes my son!   As a Christmas production, an element of levity was introduced, through the inclusion of live music, songs, and dance.  
Read more
Image
“We don’t need no education”   Pink Floyd (1979) First, I should say that I don’t agree with the opening quotation, in its own right! I consider education to be invaluable ... though, as for that which I provide -  debatable !   Anyway, off we go, and be warned...   ...for a change, this is a wholly positive post!   As you might recall, I have delivered many, brain injury related, presentations to students (and others) since surviving the injury.   Inevitably, this ground to a complete halt, by reason of Covid, and such activity seems (for several reasons), to have taken a very long time, to re-start.   That was, until a couple of weeks ago...   My “gigging” activities look like they are recommencing.   In the past, the delivery of presentations, has been very important to me.   In pre - Phil v2.0 days, public speaking formed a major part of my life. The fact that this is, now rather replicated, with further presentations is, therefore, something of a recapture, of my earlier life - an
Read more
Image
“That's how grateful we are, that's how grateful we are That's how grateful we are, that's how grateful we are That's how grateful we are, that's how grateful we are That's how grateful we are, that's how grateful we are”   (Chumbawamba 1990)   I have previously mentioned, my involvement with  the South Manchester and Stockport branch of Headway – the brain injury association.    Our branch is charitable and non-trading. Accordingly, we can only spend for the benefit of our members, money that we can raise from charitable sources. Perhaps needless to say, we are on the  constant lookout for charitable funds.    An obvious source of these, are  donations.   Saturday 7 October, saw the culmination of a fundraising exercise, that generated donations, amounting to  more than £800!   A team of three senior corporate lawyers (old colleagues of mine), competed in my local parkrun, and obtained sponsorship for their efforts.   They gave up their normal Saturday
Read more