Music is my muse

Writing is my first love. Music is my forever love.

This thought came to me while listening to one of my absolute favorite pieces by Ludovico Eunadi. It’s a popular composition and one that will forever soothe my soul. Nuvole Bianche. As soon as the first stroke of keys played through the speakers of my laptop, my fingers hovered over the keyboard.

I’d been struggling to write a story. To write anything worthwhile, then I took a moment to breathe. With the song playing in the background, my muscles began to relax one by one starting at my clenched shoulders.

Letting all thought go, I focused on the emotional melody.

I recalled the first time I ever heard it. As insignificant as it may have been, I heard a thirty second snippet through an Instagram story. The moment the notes resonated in my ears my chest tightened with awe. I’d always loved music, especially instrumental pieces, but this composition had me near to tears with its ethereal beauty.

Two weeks later, I found myself with a keyboard displayed proudly in my bedroom. That one song inspired me to finally pursue a passion to learn the piano which I’d been pushing away for so many years. There was no more waiting though once I'd heard Nuvole Bianche because I had to learn the piano so that I may one day play that stunning song on my own.

Feeling completely relaxed now as I stared at a blank document on my screen that thought came to me. Music is my forever love. And so, I finally typed.

No matter what mood I’m in, no matter the situation, music is always with me. It fuels every aspect of my life from something as mundane as folding laundry to the heart-wrenching loneliness that strikes my solitary soul on a random day.

Music fills every moment for me, and each moment comes with a carefully crafted corresponding playlist, as I’m sure most of us have. I have playlists dedicated to everything. For when I write, I stack songs up which consist of mostly piano, cello, and instrumental melodies. There is a playlist for when my emotions are too much. A playlist to get me pumped during a workout, and conversely, one to put me to sleep on those nights I’m struggling to drift into slumber. The best of course is the classic “getting ready” playlist full of early 2000’s jams to bump along with while sipping on a pregame drink.

Music isn’t just about the playlists or the inspiration to learn piano for me. It’s also the inspiration behind a lot of my writing. I’ll be listening to a song I haven’t heard before during my long commute to work when, randomly, my wandering mind will start creating scenes based on the words in the song. Often these will form from characters I’ve already written but the scenes are wholly created through the hypnotizing song playing through my speakers.

It's not always the words of the song that inspire me either. The words certainly have an impact, for example, when I listened to the entire album Courage by Celine Dion during my forty-five minute commute, it sparked a cascade of ideas to create an entire third book in a series I hadn’t revisited in a long time. Song after song, Celine belted out her heartache and my mind developed an entire storyline for one of my characters to also experience soul-crushing loss. But as I said, it’s not just the words that get my creative juices flowing.

The instrumental part of a song is also a major drive for my work. Most recently, I was walking on the treadmill when a remix of You Don’t Own Me struck me. The song was halfway done when my mind switched into a scene. I saw a female sink into a fighting stance, the noise around her canceling out as she took a deep breath. Dressed in a blank tank and workout leggings, she held two katanas in a relaxed grip. Jaw clenched in anger, she forced her face to relax, to not let her emotions get in the way of training. She would show him just how good she was at fighting.

As the music came to a climax, the warrior in my head opened electric blue eyes, staring up at her instructor for a second before she attacked. Her moves were far more controlled this time, far more precise and intentional. Faster the music flowed through my headphones and faster the woman swung at her opponent while I imagined this all with my legs keeping pace on the rotating belt.

Often, while listening to music, little snippets of scenes like these pop into my head and inspire whole books. I see the scene so vividly that I have no choice but to build a world around it.

So, for me, music is more than just a friend to help me embrace all the feelings when I’m down or hold me up when I’m flying high on happiness. It’s more than background noise to my writing or household chores. More than a playlist for each occasion.

It is a comforting embrace that I can always count on to be there when I need it. It will always be my inspiration when my writing needs new ideas.

Music is my forever kind of love.

Music is my muse.