music – Page 22 – hannah ananas

Glee

Can I just have GLEE for my life? I mean it. Real life Glee Club.

Get together with friends, say once a week, and each prepare a little song to perform for the group. We can do themes, and even mashups, and maybe even just copy themes from the show at times (the ones we like, anyway).

I can only see this as a beautiful idea – it will help boost our confidence in performing in front of others (as well as being vulnerable in front of them), improve our musical skills, keep our creativity working in various ways (song selection, how specifically to perform the song in terms of instrumentation and speed and key, how to express ourselves through it, music (duh), etc.), bring more music into our lives, get a taste of music that our close friends like, get to know one another better, build beautiful bonds of trust between one another, and just plain bring joy to us all via music and welcoming camaraderie. It’s fabulous. And it’s totally terrifying. But I still want to do it! Yes, I do.

…I was thinking that I only wanted to start it once back home, when with friends with whom it is easy to communicate (my ideas in general, as well as just speaking the same language fluently), but I am now thinking that this might be something worth attempting here. Even if it is only with one friend (I have one in particular in mind for it), I think it would be a good step for me, both on the I want to go home level and the musical creativity and confidence level. : )

I’m not decided yet, but I think I want to do it with her. I know for sure that I am creating this club once back in the US. However, I’m leaning towards trying it out here first… Maybe I’ll be able to work out some kinks over these next six months, making it all the better in the Fall. 😀

Post-a-day 2017

Across My Dreams

In high school, I had this playlist entitled “Sleepers”. Every night, after I turned off the lights, I would snuggle into my bed and put in one earphone (because the opposite ear was against the pillow already) to listen. The first two songs were from the early release of the music from the film Across the Universe, “All My Lovin'” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”. The third song, which was on the playlist three times in a row, was “Iron and Wine” by The Postal Service.

I’m not too sure what had me pick these songs in particular, but there was something magical to me about them. It was as if they were the first steps into my having beautiful dreams, that they began and represented the life I wanted, but could only dream.

Something like that, anyway. And I was truly happy in my life at the time, too, which makes it almost silly that I wanted something more, even though I was happy exactly where I was with it all. 🙂
Post-a-day 2017

Songs for Friends and Self

First off,

😀 Merry Christmas! 😀

Via the natural flow of thoughts in my head, I found myself singing a song that a friend and I wrote (to the tune of another song) as a goodbye present to another friend of ours a few years back. This other friend was heading to the US for a semester abroad, and so we set up a sort of going away surprise in which everyone could participate.

It was Sylvia’s idea, the song. She picked one of Gunnar’s favorite songs, and decided to write new words to it. About an hour-ish before we were supposed to head out to meet up with other friends to practice the song, she had gotten only a few sentences into it, and so I ended up taking over and putting the bulk of it together.

We threw a thumbs up on it, and rushed off to rehearse with other friends. At rehearsal, we changed a word or two to make things easier for folks, and organized our plan of action to get out the lyrics to everyone after Mass that evening (the going away party was taking place right after the young-ish adults Mass where we all went together). The song ended up going beautifully and being a total hit – it was just as we’d hoped, and all was well as we sent our good friend on his way.

Now, I completely meant the words when I wrote them for our friend Gunnar. However, a few weeks later, as I, myself, was leaving the country to go back to the US, the song suddenly sounded like something I had actually written for myself. To this day, the song gets stuck in my head (although I have no recording of it, and have not since that month looked at the lyrics), and it, somehow, is always comforting – I miss living in Vienna terribly, but this song somehow makes everything okay how it is right now. I guess God’s just good at making things work out that way. 🙂 I have this dual feeling that 1) if I move back to Vienna, I’ll never want to leave again, and 2) if I even visit Vienna, I’ll be utterly disappointed with how it compares to having lived there before and loving it so much then. I think that, no matter what, I have to go back, though. I’ll try a visit first – maybe next year for Christmas – and see how that goes, huh? Sounds good to me. 🙂 Anyway…

Enjoy. (To the tune of “Wherever You Will Go” by The Calling)

P.S. BeFree is the name of the Mass we all attended, and which had brought most of us together as friends in Vienna

6. Jan 2013

VERSE 1

So lately, been wondering
Who will be there to take your place.
When you’re gone, we’ll need one
To play that music filled with grace.
If it really is God’s will,
Then we guess that you can go.
Just remember us back here
While you’re off in USA

CHORUS
If we could, then we would
Keep you with us here in Wien.
But God sends you elsewhere,
So take care, have fun, and BeFree!

VERSE 2

Hopefully, you’ll find out
The way to make it back someday.
Until then, God bless you
And help you all throughout your days.
If it really is God’s will,
Then, Columbia, here he is!
And we hope that, while you’re out there,
The Lord’s grace still flows from you.

CHORUS

If we could, then we would
Keep you with us here in Wien.
But God sends you elsewhere,
So take care, have fun, and BeFree!

BRIDGE

God give Gunnar your blessing.
Give him helping hands and friends.
Give him everything he needs!

CHORUS

If we could, then we would
Keep you with us here in Wien.
But God sends you elsewhere,
So take care, have fun, and BeFree

VERSE 3

You’re leaving. We’ll miss you,
but all our lives will still go on.
In your heart, in your mind,
May God be with you all the time.
If it really is God’s will,
Then we guess that you can go.
Just remember us back here
While you’re off in USA

CHORUS

If we could, then we would
Keep you with us here in Wien
But God sends you elsewhere
So take care, have fun, and BeFree

If we could, then we would
Keep you with us here in Wien
But God sends you elsewhere
So take care, have fun, and BeeeeFreeeeee

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Music creates life

You know, music really can make life feel worth living.

These past few weeks have been really odd for me, and this week, especially, has been quite filled (to partial explosion) with stress, and an odd kind at that. This afternoon, as I had still two hours to fill, after what had felt like a day’s worth of work and several hours of painful efforts to sleep, I put on my jacket and rushed out into the hallways to get myself moving around, and in hopes of finding something to help pass the time, preferably involving movement (thus my vague plan of aiming for the gymnasium).

The music students are currently preparing solos (with piano accompaniment), and so I came across one of my lovelies (the Bass player) rehearsing in the hallway/student entrance area (there’s a piano there) with her accompanist. They welcomed me joyfully, and so I watched and hopped around (it was filthy cold) with semi-frozen delight for a bit.

They finished after not quite ten minutes, and so I wandered on my way toward the gym again. As I was making the final turn, I was caught by a trumpet and a couple clarinets (which was fine by me). One of them had told me that she wants to play with me, but our scheduled time for today had to be canceled, because she had to go home after rehearsal. But she was here now, and practicing…, so she dragged me in and got me to play a bit (though not together, since we only had one trumpet).

Then, when I thought they were all leaving, they told me to come with them upstairs to what turned out to be a brief a capella singing rehearsal. They were sopranos, so I got to stand with them and learn the soprano part to a very pretty Japanese song. It was almost spooky how cool it sounded and felt to be in the group, making such beautiful music.

Afterward, we established that one girl is crazy, and I declared my similar mental state. She and I, and others off and on, proceeded to dance around to the music of others rehearsing… we high fived as I was about to leave, as a sign of joint craziness and joy, and I said my goodbyes to the room, with lots of love in reply. I truly felt myself at home with this goofy group of musicians.

As I rushed out the door, and put back on my shoes, a flautist was in the hallway, next to my shoes. He excused himself, and I said, “Play!” Instantly, and with a smile and an “Okay,” he played part of his solo piece for me. It was beautiful.

And it was standing there in that freeing hallway, listening to this boy play flute, that the thought crossed my mind, unbitten, “Music really can make life worth living.”

As I have struggled with life lately, – and no, I don’t mean in the sense of giving up on life as a whole, but just on giving up on this part of life, living here and doing this job and all of that – what has gotten me through every time has been music. Sometimes it has been live music from these kids at school, or from the guitar I got as an early Christmas present last week. Sometimes it has been from Spotify or my music collection. And sometimes even just a single song that a friend sent me from YouTube.

Whatever the case, the source of my survival, my strength, my belief that this life is worth continuing and working at, despite its near-overwhelming hardships, has been music. I finally understand a bit what a friend of mine meant, when she said she felt like she had died, when she lost her hearing and, thereby, music. When I don’t have the music, I just get used to the solemn melancholy, the deafening silence of a lifestyle I don’t love – I grow accustomed to not living, and I despise the existence (but that all just becomes the norm). And when I do have the music, I am excited for today, for right now, and for what tomorrow might bring – I feel the life inside me and all around me, and I yearn to spread myself around and live to the fullest.

Music really does give life and make life worth living, even when it feels like you have nothing else for you.

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ABBA in life

The musical delight ABBA holds a truly special place in my heart. For whatever reason, I have a few very strong memories connected to their music.

My Junior year of high school, while at a dance event (west coast swing, a partner dance), “Dancing Queen” comes on. My good friend and I rush out onto the floor, as we both love the song, and it is the first time we’ve heard it played at any kind of dance event or social. We both crack up at the line referencing the dancing queen’s being 17, as 1) he has just turned 17, 2) he is semi-secretly gay (putting him in a certain category of queens), and 3) he is dancing and is darn good at it. Neither of us had anticipated the line to fit so perfectly until we heard it while on the dance floor. I was overflowing with joy and delight during that dance.

Senior year of high school, I quote the lyrics of “Thank you for the Music” in a letter (possibly for a retreat) to my eventual boyfriend. A huge portion of our friendship/relationship was filled with the beautiful music he created almost constantly, and it brought true bliss to my life in a way nothing else could. (Not that other things can’t bring true bliss, just that that particular kind of bliss was its own kind.)

Studying abroad in Vienna in college, I come home late one night to my shared dorm room, where my roommate is already in bed, sleeping (from what I can tell, anyway). I sit down at my desk to do a few things on my computer (probably check Facebook and e-mails and whatnot), and notice that my roommate is listening to music rather loudly (seeing as I can hear it and all). “Oh cool,” I think, “She likes ABBA, too.” I wonder for a bit, how on Earth she can sleep with the music playing so loudly in her ears. When I am finally about to go to sleep, half-ish an hour or so later, I notice that the music doesn’t seem to be louder near her bed, but quieter. I follow the sound, and discover that my iPod has been blasting the first artist on the list for that past 45-ish minutes. It was difficult not to laugh, though I had really enjoyed listening to the music, even if it wasn’t my roommates choice after all.

So, what beautiful, strong memory will occur next with ABBA, I wonder? 🙂

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How Apple effectively removed music from my daily life

I used to listen to music all the time. Like daily, and even throughout lots of the day oftentimes. However, that has changed in the past several months. Why? My last pair of headphones broke.

Now, this isn’t to say that I own no more headphones, and that I can’t buy more headphones. Of course not – I own several pair, and the stores are hardly sold out of headphones. This is to say that my last pair of headphones I can use finally broke.

I guess it was a couple or a few years ago that Apple decided to alter drastically the design of their headphones/headsets. The “earbuds” were established as the only design the company made anymore, removing the former style. I used my new set of earbuds when I got my new phone (I was so excited about it, it was kind of ridiculous)…, and I quickly discovered that they gave me splitting headaches.

How is this possible, since we all know that I always play my music rather quietly? Well, the earbuds are too large for my ears. They push so much on the inside rims of my ears, that my head starts hurting after only a few minutes of use – I don’t even get to enjoy a single song, before the pain begins. I wore them and wore them, hoping beyond hope that I would adjust to this new style of headphones… to no avail. I eventually had to give up on them, and make a belated effort to collect as many pairs of the old style as possible (friends were priceless in this effort).

I obviously am very biased here, but I believed Apple had the best headphones on the market for anyone who wasn’t willing to go into the hundreds of dollars for a set. Perhaps this is part of why all of the other companies that produce headphones suddenly cut production of the former style of headphones, and instead adopted the earbuds style – because Apple is the leader, and they followed.

Whatever the case, though, production of good quality headphones of the formerly top style were now seemingly nonexistent. That being the case, it meant that I no longer could use headphones for music (or even headsets for phone calls). I’m always out and about, so I can’t exactly play my music out loud, walking down the busy street, and be able to enjoy it (let alone hear most of it above the street noise). Nor can I blast music on the trains, where signs regularly remind everyone not to talk on the phone, because it makes noise that could bother others. So, I just don’t get to listen to music (or talk on the phone easily) whenever I’m out. (I also have no more audiobook-listening opportunities, something I also used to do almost daily during my work commute.)

So, music has kind of just stepped away from my life these past several months. It’s dreadful, but I have nothing to do to improve it. Ideas are entirely welcome, because I miss music every single day, and I just haven’t found anything to do about it, other than write this here post. I find it utterly amazing, how what could have been one small decision by one person – I person I don’t even know -, has made such a drastic (and negative at that) effect on my life. It really has me wonder how my daily, seemingly mundane (to me, anyway) decisions might affect the world beyond my immediate surroundings. How does my decision here and now affect someone (potentially) on the other side of the world? And how about in another six months? Or six years? Or, at that, eternity? Truly is interesting, huh?

Anyway,… here’s to finding music again!

I'm part of Post A Day 2016