Songs and music can help us communicate in many ways – I have met people who lose spoken language after brain injury, yet communicate through music and song.
Songs can fill us with emotion, they can motivate us, they can resonate with our lives. And on and on I could go.
Is this already sounding a bit sweety twee? It is not meant to – I will try and save myself and I will keep it short (for a change I hear you say!)
This all came about when I recently stumbled upon a song that touched me. As I listened I thought I would like to hear about other peoples experiences of songs, and of this song.
A week or so ago I went to my second concert by musician Passenger. You may already be a fan, or you might know him through the song “Let Her Go”.
Passenger played the song that prompted this article at the first concert I went to. With the chorus playing over in my mind I went home and tracked down the lyrics.
It sounded to me in a simple way to be about resilience.
Embarassed to say I then filed it away and forgot about it.
Fast forward 2 years – Passenger Concert number 2. There is was again. “Holes” This time I went home and immediately looked it up to share today.
For me it was the chorus that resonated. We all got “holes” from our life experiences and trauma –
It is kind of sad,
kind of hopeful
and a reminder we’ve all “got holes” and we mostly learn to “carry on”.
“Said we’ve got holes in our hearts, yeah we’ve got holes in our lives
Where we’ve got holes, we’ve got holes but we carry on”
You can read the full song lyrics for “Holes” Or have a listen to the music clip below –
Music was, and still is, so important to me. I used music to sing along with the Beatles, J.J. Cale, Van Morrison, The Band, Bob Dylan, probably every album I owned. Why did I sing along? The main side-effect from my injury is aphasia. Singing with my favorite bands helped me more then my speech therapy (sorry therapists). I also use music for my short-term memory. Brought a beginners mandolin, needed to learn how to tune the strings, how to make & strum chords, how to pick notes individually, how to read standard and/or tab music sheets. Then remember what I just played an hour ago, yesterday, two days ago, a month ago, etc. And most importantly, remembering how to play that song without reading the sheet music. My memory is much better now then it was before I brought that beautiful instrument.
Ric
Ric, This is a fabulous story. If you wanted to write an article about you and the Mandolin I would be very happy to publish it on Changed Lives New Journeys. I think it is easy to underestimate the impact music and other creative arts can have on our lives. Thanks so much for sharing. Regards Melanie
Just after posting this article I received the following article from Brain Pickings – more about the benefits of music
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/03/15/writers-on-music/