Listening to Music Without Understanding It

Having started writing these posts, I thought it was time to introduce them and to introduce myself as a contributor here on Sourcerer. My name is David, and my handle is CompGeekDavid – named for my main blog, Comparative Geeks. There, I write geeky things, and am one of two main contributors – the other being my wife, Holly.

I have a personal blog, as well, that some of you may know me from – DBCII. I am not nearly as consistent in writing there, but when I do, I write about Social Media experiments – similar, say, to some of the posts here on Sourcerer – and about writing and blogging – similar to what you see at The Writing Catalog. I had blogging on my radar because I want to write, and because, after college, working writing back into my life was not the easiest thing. 

One of my favorite things, my white noise and background, often my muse and inspiration, is music. I love music. I have zero training in music. I mean, I guess there was music class in elementary school, but all that taught me was I can’t play the recorder. When people ask if I play an instrument, my answer is “the radio.”

So my thoughts on music are, in the end, entirely as audience. As untrained audience. As untrained audience that might be slightly tone-deaf. As untrained audience that has trouble, often, understanding lyrics in songs. In fact, my first love on the Internet was sites that have song lyrics (now it’s IMDb…).

It was in the early days of Facebook that I hit on the phrase “listening to music without understanding it.” It is how I would describe my love affair with music. I don’t get it, I couldn’t possibly make it, but it’s one of the best things ever. It’s a reminder I am alive, that the world is real, that there are wonderful and talented people out there making amazing things, that I am not one of them — and that I live in a world where that’s okay, where I can still experience and enjoy all that they do and make.

I’ve tried blogging about music on Comparative Geeks, but it’s always felt a bit forced. Like my list of 5 geeky bands. Or my somewhat forced (though completely logical to me) definition of the music of life – music as modern poetry.

I’ve also tried (unsuccessfully) to talk about music on DBCII, but mostly tying back to posts on Comparative Geeks. It didn’t quite seem to fit there either, maybe in part because I can’t talk about the craft of making music – I just flat out don’t know it.

But during the April A to Z Challenge, two things happened. One is that Gene’O, editor here on Sourcerer, wrote several great posts about music – like his post on Images or on Lyric. The other thing that happened was that he said he was looking for more blogging contributors.

One of the taglines of Sourcerer, if you cast your gaze up there, is that this is a blog about – or at least containing – music. And I felt like things had come together, for me to have a place to blog about music, for Sourcerer to get another contributor, and for me to do more blogging, like I’ve said on DBCII that I want to. Everyone wins – well, at least hopefully, assuming you like my stuff!

So far, this has been a bit like a concert. I opened with a smash hit – the Lumineers. Then we move into something maybe a little more unknown, with my post on Vocal Duos in music. I think we’ll be revisiting that. Now, we stop for a moment, there is an introduction, and it’s time to go back into a hit.

So let’s end with music. Let’s go with what is definitely my favorite music video, and possibly my favorite song. This is the song, especially with the music video, that got me into blogging. I watched it, and then I created my personal Tumblr, the ideas for which in the end became part of Comparative Geeks.

The song deals with life, and the need to do more than just work for the money – for that dollar. About not giving up The Ghost Inside.

We’re seeing this band in August, so more on them later! Hope you enjoyed!