The soundtrack of our lives

Group singing fascinates me. As a musician, it is interesting for me to see which songs people of all ages will consistently sing along with.  As I play for a lot of senior groups, I am sensitive to trying to choose songs that are not considered too babyish or unsophisticated. And yet, it is always the most simple songs we learned as children that bring about the best response. I have some ideas of reasons for this.

I used to think that if people were in less happy circumstances in their present life, then recalling happier times would make them sad because they would compare their lives to better times. I have found that I am wrong about this. When we sing a song that conjures up a happy memory, all the cells in our body respond accordingly.  We are able to feel that happiness anew. And when singing in a group, it is such a bonding experience because we have come from different places, might have a different social class, ethnicity, religious background, political outlook but when it comes to singing together --we are united on equal ground. We are like a field of sunflowers reaching to the sun.

Yesterday I experienced this in two groups.  We sang old songs like, "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad," "Billy Boy," "Oh Susanna," "Que Sera, Sera," "When the Saints Go Marching In," etc. At times I would insert a song more sophisticated musically like, "Side by Side," Or "I Got Rhythm, " but songs like, "Home on the Range", 'Take me out to the Ballgame" got the laughs and smiles and shared camaraderie.  We all remember those field trips in school where we sang on the bus the whole way. Or music class where we sang together. It was not about learning music --it was about sharing the moment together.

I once thought I had an unhappy childhood. It is true most of us remember the bad memories more strongly over the good ones. But I did this exercise and you can too. Recall some of the songs that hold a happy memory of when you were a child. If you can, seek out that song and download it from the internet.  Find about ten or more and burn them onto a CD. Listen on the way to work in the car or at  your leisure and see how it makes you feel.

Some of the songs I chose were songs I danced to in tap class, sang in variety shows, heard on my transistor radio while at the beach with my family, or sang in summer camp. Here are some of the songs from my Happy Childhood soundtrack:
"Alley Cat," "Happiness Is (Charlie Brown), "Time is Tight, " "For Once in My Life,", "Classical Gas, " etc.

what's on your Soundtrack?