This one's about music

I love doing lunchtime posts. I sit here, munching on whatever I brought or bought for myself, and ramble for anyone to read. Today's lunchtime topic is going to be music.

It should be fairly obvious to anyone who has read this blog for any length of time that music is really important to me. I love all kinds of music, and I find lyrics and the music itself very inspiring. Music can alter or sustain any mood. There is a power in music that cannot be found elsewhere.

There is a genre or song for every possible occasion. Listening to a lovely classical piece, for example, I can close my eyes and be transported to another world or another time. If I'm driving to or from work and the other drivers are particularly annoying, I can put on Sarah Brightman singing Pie Jesu. There is no way to be angry when that song is playing. I always sing along too, and that helps calm me right down! If I'm angry and want to stay that way (for whatever reason) I can always play something hard, with screaming guitars and hard hitting rhythm. If I'm in a good, happy mood, something upbeat with bouncy lyrics is always appropriate. A dance tune perhaps, or something from the 80's. In the mornings, on my way to work, I often listen to my Christian rock playlist. These songs uplift my spirit and encourage me to have a positive, loving attitude throughout the day. It's amazing what the right song will do. Movie soundtracks are favorites, simply because the music paints a picture of what happens on the screen. My favorite soundtracks are the ones that recall the scene when I'm listening in my car, and make me relive that moment again. The Lord of the Rings soundtracks do that very, very well.

I write better to music. It's one of the things I discovered during NaNoWriMo last year. Everyone on the forum talked about the music they were using to write, and I had never really thought about how different music would be more appropriate for different types of writing. Which is silly considering how much music means to me in general, and how much it affects my life. So I experimented with different types of music for different scenes. I wrote a particularly beautiful scene during this experiment. The perfect song came on and inspired the scene so much more than silence ever would have.

So I guess this post has no point other than the fact that music is so important. As I sit here, typing my lunchtime blog post, my iPod is playing my Christian playlist. The song from Relient K called "For the Moments I Feel Faint" is on right now, and I can close my eyes and speak the words of the song in my mind. It is a prayer for strength, and we can all use strength in our lives. Just another example of a song coming at a good time, and inspiring me to say things I may not have said.