Airborne

Photo by Vadim Sadovski. Source: unsplash.com

A few days ago, I made a track that I really enjoyed making. I wanted to share it with you guys. I’ve posted part of it on my Instagram page. I’ll link it here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BzeKMICDbe2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

From a very young age, I’ve enjoyed airplanes. They were magnificent in my eyes. I saw great perfection in the lines they made in the sky. I was amazed when I first saw one up close. I found it amazing how something this big always appeared to be small whenever I looked up, squinting from the balcony of my flat, determined to get a glimpse of a passing miracle of human innovation.

When I was 4 years old, my dad introduced me to Microsoft Flight Simulator. My small hands tugging at the joystick that I could barely keep steady, I found inspiration in the beautiful in-between of the beauty of nature and man’s impeccable skill to innovate. I knew I would never be a pilot. But I knew in the first few moments of playing that game, that I’ll always love these man-made birds. I knew that I would never grow tired of flying.

I love to sit way at the back. I don’t know why. But I really enjoy just sitting there feeling small, harmless tremors that I can feel if I put a finger to the walls of the airplane. I also never get over that feeling of taking off into the air. It gives me goosebumps when the pilot does a good job of landing the plane. And if I see the pilot outside, I smile at him like a happy customer looks at his chef after a great meal.

When I used to play flight simulator, I used to act like I was a real pilot and go exploring lands that I had never seen before. Microsoft did a great job of replicating the world for pilots and I definitely enjoyed it. I remember flying low over Hawaii and flying through New York during the winter. As the years passed, I understood planes better. I read about them, watched videos and drew them in my maths text. I loved everything about planes.

And I think I always will.

My love for planes might make you think I’m a bit weird. Please feel free to say that in the comments section. I’ll take that as a compliment.

I’m indebted to you, dear reader, for still being here. Do give me a follow and drop a comment. I’d love to know one more fellow human being on this planet. Have a blast existing and God bless you!

I’m Aching To Be Out There

Metamorphosis Behind A Window. Photo by Suzanne D. Williams. Source: unsplash.com

I’m a butterfly. I used to be a caterpillar. Before that, I was an egg. But you don’t know me. Yet. But I know you. I see you through the transparent chrysalis that envelops me. In time we’ll meet. I’m nearly there. I’m a complete butterfly inside a cocoon. How did I get here? It was inevitable. It had to be done. That’s how God made me. It was important for me to shut myself in a cocoon so that I could develop into a butterfly. But now, it’s nearly done. I don’t understand why I have be here anymore. I’m complete. But all in time. But make no mistake, I’m aching to be out there.

Metamorphosis Behind A Window is one of the tracks I made during this summer holiday. I’ll link it at the end of this post if you guys want to listen to it. I couldn’t upload it.

What inspired me: I had been stuck in my room for the past 1 month. Only going out on Sundays to attend church. After going to college, I had a really vibrant social life and being back home and not even going out, I felt trapped. I was looking out of my window, seeing all the cars honking at each other, a sight quite normal to the average Indian citizen. We spend a lot of time in cars stuck in traffic. I was looking out and seeing all this activity and I was back home, stuck in my room. No one shut me in. I just had nothing to do outside. I didn’t have many friends from school that I could go meet. But i had my passion for music. I spent the last two months in my room, playing my guitar and experimenting with music. It was from this, that the track came.

Now, through this track I wanted to convey a message. Here is a butterfly, fully formed, inside a transparent cage( The chrysalis of a butterfly, is usually transparent). Just before it comes out, it has the same potential as it will have when it has come out. I would imagine a butterfly really struggling to come out, considering how it must feel, knowing that it’s complete and yet not being able to go outside. But if you actually look at a butterfly coming out of it’s transparent chrysalis or cocoon, regardless of the amount of movement you see, it looks graceful. It looks like the cocoon and the butterfly are working together to create a release of potential into nature. That inspires me.

We are all undergoing a metamorphosis of our own and there will be times when we feel like we have reached our ultimate potential but are being caged by systems. It’s hard. Because we know what’s out there and we know we are meant for it, just like the butterfly in the transparent chrysalis. But like the butterfly, we must learn to work together with the chrysalis to release our potential.

God loves us. More than we could ever imagine. And sometimes, he gives us cocoons to develop in. We must learn to use it to vitalise our potential. This has a place in every situation in life, be it work, study, or personal development. I believe it is key to enjoying life and reaching great heights at the same time. And I hope that you never ever forget to enjoy life.

Do check out the other tracks and tell me what you think. I really appreciate it. Thank you once again for taking time out of your life to read the stuff I write. It means more than you know. God bless you!!!!

My Instagram page is over at @stefguitargeek

You can listen to the track mentioned in this post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxxArFJDY70/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Some of the tracks are also there on YouTube at Stef Guitar Geek

Explosion

‘Every work of art is an explosion of a lifetime of creative thoughts that passes through the mind of an artist’ – Stefan 🙂

For many years I’ve felt that our fascination for many things is very much connected to our inability to explain our object of fascination. It is not the factual information we know that raises our fascination but what we don’t know.

Every song, every book, every blog post, every word you say is influenced by the information you have collected from your birth to that moment in your life. Every creation is a result of millions of thoughts of a unique person and thus, a unique way of thinking.

When you look at the Mona Lisa, you see the result of the millions of thoughts that passed through the mind of the great Leonardo Da Vinci in the many years he spent before that canvas. And you immediately question why he painted it. You look for an answer in the canvas before you. An answer for a question that is explained completely only by the millions of thoughts that passed through the complicated mind of the famous painter.

The ‘what’ question is not the signature of human fascination. It is merely a bridge to the first question that sparks research – the ‘why’

When you see art, it is like standing in the middle of an explosion of millions of creative thoughts that could have passed through the mind of an artist. An explosion sparked by a question of ‘why’ it’s there, why the artist made it the way it is. You only see a few fragments during the explosion, parts of the painting or the song that clicks with you. Different people see different fragments of the creativity of the artist and we all form our own opinions and conclusions.

We are all great artists in the sense that we all feel a very similar level of emotion when we are creating something new. The difference lies in how well we are able to take the person witnessing our work of art, to the level of emotion we were at, when we were creating the art. There is the art that talks of great complex things, philosophy and ideology, and then there is the art that talks of simple things, everyday things that we all know of. But both find place in the museum.

It’s not just about what you speak but how you convey it.

Songs, poems, paintings and novels are all explosions of somebody’s creative thoughts that evolved through a lifetime of thinking. Many strings of thought, forced into a small canvas or a 3 minute song. Kinda like taking all the water on the earth and filling it into a balloon

This is why successful people are often people who’ve been denied and rejected many times. The time they spend, sticking to what they do, one day, becomes really explosive. Their strings of thought and experience become so long, they cannot be forced into a few words or a few strokes of paint. But when they do, they are explosive. You can’t figure it all out. There’s no cliché when you read a really explosive story. You just can’t predict what happens next. You have no idea of what’s going on!

Why?

Because there is a lot of input that went into it. A lot of detail, detail that makes it more real to you.

What is your passion? What do you have in abundance? What is that hidden talent?

Bring it on! Put everything you know out there. Use every ounce of resource you have. And then force it into as small a package as you can. Make it into a blog post, a painting, a song. Make it explosive.

Why did Da Vinci spend 12 years of his life before the Mona Lisa?

He was bringing in all he knew, he was trying to put in all those millions of creative thoughts and ideas into that one canvas that would change history. He was creating something explosive. He was creating a ‘masterpiece’!

It’s all about an endless space of remarkable potential, a blank space. It’s all about filling it with who you are and what you know.

Every work of art is an explosion. Some are small and some are big, but behind every work of art, there is a very similar excitement. It’s all about bringing that out. It takes time and in time, that explosion of words and that explosion of colour, grows into something magnificent, something that changes history.

Let’s all work on our small explosions. Let’s stick to it and make it something wonderful!

God bless!

What do you think about ‘explosion’ ?

Comment. Share. Be a part of the movement! 🙂

Music is Everywhere!

Hey guys,

Today I am going to attempt to share with you how I see music in the surroundings around me. I hope you like it.

The sun just came out. It’s morning!

I slide out of bed on to the floor and just lie there looking at the blades of the fan on the ceiling as they cut through air. The sun fills my room with a yellow light. A flickering shadow appears on the ceiling above my fan as it’s blades cut through the light. I smile. I lie down there and say my prayers. ‘Good morning, God. It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?’ He smiles down at me.

I look at the ceiling again. The light from the sun is more of a brighter yellow now. As it flickers on the ceiling, I see a silent beat. The fan’s blades swish through the air like the drum sticks in the hands of a drummer.

I smile. Welcome to my new song, ladies and gentlemen. So glad you could drop by. I jump into action. I moonwalk into the bathroom, brush my teeth dancing, put on some clothes and grab my guitar. The silent beat I saw, playing in my mind.

I go into the kitchen, give my mom a hug, say hi to my dad and open the front door. It squeaks. Like a synthesizer.

Now to get my bassline.

I go to the lift. It’s at floor 8. I press the button. The lift comes down one floor at a time. It stops at 5, then resumes it’s descent to my floor. I follow it’s progress in the language of  music. Silent music. I hear a ping as the lift opens. Bassline?

I get in and I start ascending. I am heading for the top. On the way, I hear a baby cry. Hmm. Shorten the time period, increase the pitch and you get a classic Michael Jackson. My song starts to feel like an old 80s song.

Anyway.

I get to the terrace. I make clap sounds as I climb up the stairs to the terrace.

I am out in the open now. The wind hits me with a gentle nudge. I hear it pass through small cracks here and there. There’s a flute in the house!

I sit down and put my fingers to the guitar. I tap on it and give sound to my silent beat. My fingers now slide up the fret board, a little pressure here, a little pressure there. My fingers pluck on the strings. They come to life. The yellow morning sun makes a colourful reflection on my guitar.

I imagine myself in front of millions of people, like all amateur musicians out there ( I am pretty amateur ). The chorus comes in and I hear a choir as the wind gets faster. I smile. An electric guitar kicks on somewhere in my mind. A slow lead line follows. The clouds now move slowly. We end our first song with a crescendo.

I smile, thank God for the day. Now to get some breakfast. I’m starving!

What music do you see in your surroundings?

Comment. Share. Be a part of the movement!

 

 

The song of the rain

For those of you guys who know me and read my blog posts( I am extremely grateful to you for your interest, time and feedback), you know how I am greatly inspired by rain and sunlight. One of my favourite hobbies is just sitting in front of my window looking out into the rain, my head resting on my palms and making up lines of poetry, not necessarily with rhyme schemes and alliteration, but just filled with what I love.

Today as I was reading some blogs, I heard a tug on my door. I looked outside and the trees were bending so hard, I thought they were going to break. I live in a flat. This means the only sounds I hear are the soft strokes of the heavy wind on my window and the small rain drops sky diving onto its glass.

I used to live in a house before where I could hear the pouring rain on the roof and the wind was more noisy. Here in the flat, I hear only the softest sounds as the roof is much higher above me. This thought absolutely inspired me and I am going to do something new today. I am just going to sit down and write the verses that come to my head, whatever they may be. This is an example of my ‘a day(rainy) in the life’. This is for all you poets out there. Please tell me what you think. I would absolutely love to hear from you!

I sit in front of the window, my head on my palms. My fingers lightly rub my cheek in the excitement of what is outside. It is as if the heart of the earth is beating normal, but its blood is going fast, craving for the heart to somehow keep up.  For inside my room, the atmosphere is calm and gentle, but on the outside, where it really matters, everything is fast. It is a strange strangeness, a beautiful confusion.

I blink as a flash of lightning erupts in the sky, cutting the dark and bringing light. Seems very strange that from the very clouds that make it dark, a light would shine. God suddenly seems to whisper in my ear-‘Just as I make ‘everything’, even the hard and painful things in life work out for you for the better because you love me’. I smile and my eyes dart back to the rain.

The trees are now bowing, the branches like hairs on end. I get up and slowly and carefully open my window a few inches, air gushes in and sends the papers on my desk flying. They seem to be jumping up and down, happy! I stand and look. The door of my room slams shut and I am thrown back into reality. I shut the door and sit back again.

I hear the orchestra playing outside, like the ocean in a sea shell, somehow refined and coloured just for me. Now and then a drop hits my window creating a rhythm  so consistent, it baffles my senses of logic. I lie down and hear the wind outside. Here in my bed, inside my blanket, wrapped up in a cocoon, like a butterfly waiting to go out, into a world that will be brand new in a matter of minutes, I feel nothing but hear.

My eyelids start to droop, ever so slightly and the lightning outside wakes me up. My eyelids droop again, this time, the lightning is not heard. My brain stops worrying about the rain, but I still hear it somehow and then I lie there still, my mouth slightly open. Why do I always sleep with my mouth open??

The rain stops after a while. It slows it’s song down to a whisper then to a single drop. Very much like the tap of a pencil on a cymbal, dull but unique. The song of the rain is somehow strange. Instead of starting with a whisper and ending in a crescendo, it does the exact opposite. God is indeed a great artist. His song of the rain is my favourite yet.

 

If you like this, also check out an earlier post of mine very much like this and tell me if you want more posts like these. Hope you guys have a fantastic day and God bless!!!!

https://thefourthdimensionoflife.wordpress.com/2017/07/16/when-leaves-bow/

 

I don’t know everything

A few days ago, I was travelling to my dad’s place. I had a few hours on my hand and I was getting bored. Most of us in the car had fallen asleep. So, I turned on my iPod, settled down and hummed and mouthed the words of the song.

We all love music in a very unique way. Today, with the discovery of the mp3 format, we have music everywhere. We go through the crazy hubbub of life with earphones in our ears. We find solace in music in the craziest of times. It just stays there, never really interfering with what we do, like a good friend. It expects nothing back.

A few months ago, I had published a post called silent music on why we find ourselves humming to ourselves(not even realising we are doing it), while we are doing something else like washing the dishes or copying notes. Music is a part of us that remains embedded to the roots of our world of thought.

WOW!

Today, I am going to talk to you about ‘the missing words’ in a song.

Well, what are the missing words?

Technically, ‘The missing words’ according to me are those words you don’t know in a song but fill in with unrecognisable vowels and sounds when you want to sing.

The point is, you don’t always check if you know all the words of the song before you sing it. Most of us listen to new songs on the radio, get mesmerised by the notes and just sing with what we have. It’s like that funny moment when you are at a family gathering and everybody knows this particular song which you don’t know and you jump in at the chorus with all the voice you have after a few stanzas to avoid suspicion and just mouth stuff for the rest.

Deja vu, right?

Well, anyway, I was thinking about this when I realised that’s how life is. Most of us get fed up with life because we don’t know all the words. We stop trying to build up a talent because half way up, we realise that we don’t have what it takes.

Well, that’s what I call a colossal lie. A ‘colossal lie’ is a lie you tell yourself( according to me).

Many things in life get tough before it gets easy.

If you don’t sing a song just because you don’t know all the words, you’re missing out, bro! That song inside you is unique and precious. It has many things to offer you wherever you are on the graph.

God made us  to be unique beings. When we don’t believe in the song he has given us, are we not missing out on the best. He has a plan for every one of us. You don’t know which piece of the puzzle has to put in next. But the piece you have right now tells you there is an other one.

So, this week, be happy for what God has given you. Try out new ways to improve your skills and don’t give up just because you don’t know all the words.

God bless!!!!