Music triggering Memories

I love how music triggers strong memories. I can usually tell what I did when I first heard a CD, over and over and over...like when I first got Sims, I listened to Switchfoot's "Beautiful Letdown" CD over and over. So now, even though I don't have Sims anymore, I can still see the little guys walking around the screen when I hear them sing. Other songs trigger memories of jigsaw puzzles, or scrapbooking...

When I visited Eastern Turkey, we had a tour guide who was half Turkish, half Kurdish, and very proud of his heritage. He played Kurdish music for us...very eerie and melancholy. Driving through that part of the country, where there is rough land and it has to be hard to farm enough food for your family, let alone make any money. The music fits the landscape perfectly. Now I can listen to the music and see the landscape. And smile at the memories (I'll tell you that one soon. Great, great story)

And sometimes memories are formed from one very defining moment, usually the first time I heard a song. Every time I hear "Piano Man," for example, I can see myself, a high school freshman, standing in a practice room, with as many people as we could cram in there, listening to everyone sing it while a senior played it on the piano.

But sometimes memories come back, that actually have nothing to do with the song. The first song on Switchfoot's newest CD, for some reason, triggers memories of early college. I have no idea why...I heard them for the first time only about 2 or 3 years ago, long after college.

And a CD I got after a night camping, reminds me of the feeling of looking at the beautiful scenery at that camping site.

Music is a funny thing :) I should know...I was a music major!!

(funny side note: I'm planning to play in the Pit Orchestra of my church's production of Narnia next Easter, when I have a one-month old!! Am I nuts? Very possibly! But this is my all-time favorite way to play...there's nothing like the adrenaline rush of playing difficult music, having no-one else playing your part, and being aware that the actor could get nervous and sing the song twice as fast as he sang it in rehearsal, and you have to be right there with him!)