Music brings back sweet memories

I grew up in a house with a music room. The music room had a piano (and years later, my brother’s drum set). 

All three of us children had weekly piano lessons with our Tita Flora. Unfortunately, the farthest I reached with playing the piano is Grade 2, mastering pieces Yesterday of the Beatles and Blue Moon.

Later, I took up voice lessons in Yamaha, but I never got the chance to do a recital, because — people would find this hard to believe — I had stage fright. To the point that I would not sing in front of the teacher, always preferring to be behind her as she played. 

Take note, there were only two of us in our small booth.

In high school, I joined our school chorale.

Much later, already a professional, I tried to squeeze in time for guitar lessons but to no avail. 

I’m a frustrated singer. 

Next to writing, that does not feel like work at all, singing is another avenue that I would want to pursue which does not feel like work at all — if only I were good at it.  

That explains my fascination with this last batch of American Idol. 

I eagerly watched because of half-Pinay Jessica Sanchez, and I admire her love for family and her desire to help in the family’s finances. She started so young, even uploading videos of herself on YouTube.

The Top 3 was my Top 3. Joshua Ledet was a total performer, and it was inspiring to learn that he would keep on singing wherever and whenever, non-stop. This trait annoyed some of the AI contestants, but it was one of the qualities, which I felt, should land him a career in singing. A relentless desire to sing, to burst into song like music cannot be contained.

Phillip Phillips, on the other hand, admitted that he may not have a great voice, but he just loves what he does. And you get that when you watch him, you feel the sincere energy, he connects and the audience feels what he feels. We get his message. 

Admittedly, I cannot be a singer, or maybe, it’s too late to become a musician. But I can always sing to my heart’s content and allow music to move me,

which brings me to my next love: Listening to music. 

I was born in the ’70s, and enjoyed the music of the ’80s. In Grade 1, we were “exercising” to the tune of Michael Jackson’s Beat It for our field demonstrations.

And then, there’s the music of Boy George, the boy who looks like a girl. Spandau Ballet and Tears for Fears: I did not actively listen to their music, and yet it elicits a feeling of familiarity when you hear their songs. It triggers something in you, an old familiar feeling that’s difficult to define. Music is the closest you can get to teleportation and traveling back in time. 

The first four notes of Love Moves in Mysterious Ways of Julia Fordham, bring me back to my college days driving around the UP Oval in Diliman. Awww...

Such is my fixation on music that when our wedding day came, there were a few things that we prioritized — the food, photos and music. Anything that appeals to our senses will linger. I burned our wedding playlist in a CD and in my phone — from the wedding march all the way to the reception. And it’s easy to just be back in that moment.

Music also allows us to be part of a different era. Sometimes I feel I was born in the ’50s and ’60s because my parents would listen to the music of the oldies like Matt Monroe and Frank Sinatra. I can imagine coiffed hairstyles, and balloon skirts and cadillac, just by listening to music. 

Which makes me wish the singers of this generation would come up with their original songs. I appreciate the crooners like Michael Bublé doing a Frank Sinatra, but I’m uncertain whether doing revivals is doing much as to defining the music of one’s generation.

The original songs transcend generation. If I were a singer or a composer, ahem, that’s what I would aspire for — music that will be remembered, and still gives goosebumps generations after. 

Hence, I appreciate certain songs of groups like Kamikazee and Siakol even because of their originality and their hook on our pop culture. No mistake, they belong to this era, but there is still plenty of room for more “melody,” and may this generation produce the likes of Apo Hiking Society, Rey Valera and Jose Mari Chan. Isn’t it obvious that I’m a fan? 

Music icons they are, and I’m just grateful that they continue to bring back sweet memories.  

(E-mail me at [email protected] or follow me on Twitter: @bernadette_ABS.)