A Peek Down the Road Less Traveled

A couple of days ago, I started reminiscing about the good ol' days back in school when I and a couple of friends used to do a lot of music stuff -- acting like fools in the choir, playing in a band, performing in plays, swapping music sheets, trying to figure out the chords of a song, writing our own songs, memorizing lyrics, or just plain listening to whatever song caught our fancy. Sure as hell it was the best of times. I could still remember how I told myself then that this - music - was where my life should be.

Year later, it is a little bit ironic that my life turned out to be a lot different from what I envisioned it to be. Maybe because of so much personal drama and the fact that making music isn't exactly the most financially rewarding job in the world, I found myself doing something else, something of which the very idea of doing it would have disgusted my young self. If he were here now, he would probably berate me for my life's choices. But I suppose life could be mean that way, you'll just never know where the road is gonna lead you and you'll find yourself following the same beaten path taken by everyone else.

The music never left me, however. I still get to occasionally dream of the idea of being able to perform again, not necessarily onstage and in front of a lot of people, but just to be able to perform and sing, even with just a couple of old friends, still feels delightful and refreshing. This idea would've probably brought a tear to my eye. But being hardened and jaded, I just couldn't bring myself to cry anymore as I used to and just be able to let my feelings go. The nostalgia and the sweet pain are still there, however. But life's scars have a way of stopping you from expressing what you feel as you should.

Now a couple of days ago, a good friend has been discussing with me the idea of being able to sing in a choir again. And while it could just turn out to be nothing more but a pipe dream (at this point), the possibility is still there. Singing and music are ageless things after all. While maybe right now things maybe a little too complicated for it to happen, it still could happen especially if we put our minds and emotions into it.

We ended up making suggestions of what songs would be nice to sing as a group. I suggested that Rivermaya's Himala (Miracle) would be really nice and she suggested, a little jokingly, that perhaps I should arrange it. Pretty swell idea, in my opinion. And while I do have experience arranging songs, it has been a LONG while since the last time I did it. The prospect of doing it is a bit scary, I admit. But I thought: hey, it wouldn't hurt to try again. Besides, even if I'm not doing this profit and just for pure giggles, being able to resurrect my dormant musical talents would be a nice creative exercise that would lend some much needed excitement to my somewhat boring life.

So I downloaded a score writer, listened to the song several times, and actually began to transcribe the notes. After several hours of hard thinking and a lot of head scratching, the work was about half complete. And listening to what I have made so far, it felt pretty... glorious. It was like the old feelings and sensations and being able to lose yourself in a world of notes are all coming back. I actually found myself with a smile plastered on my face. And I had no idea when it transplanted itself there.

I'm hoping to finish arranging the song in a few more days. As I've nailed down the basic melodies of the song, all that's left really is to polish and embellish and work out the blending of the notes. Maybe once finished, I'll send a copy of the transcript to my friend, again just for giggles -- well, as soon as I figure out how to convert the file into something that can be e-mailed anyway.

They say that the road least taken is a hard, difficult but beautiful road. But being able to just take a peek and see what could probably be around the corner feels good in itself. Will I follow that road someday? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But the road will always be there. All I really need to do is follow it if I want to.