Hopeful Today!

   There are times when nothing around you seems right . Sadness and misery surrounds you and what does one do ? Embrace it . Human mind i have felt is a magical pot of constant occurring chemical reactions . The end products reflect in our emotions and the ingredients are a result of how we perceive things around us. Is it normal to feel sad ? It should be because its quite normal to feel happy. And acceptance of how you feel is the first way to appreciate the feeling. And appreciation of anything leads you back to being happy or lets call it an end product where the ingredient is appreciation . Some might go a further distance and paint a beautiful sad picture or make a sad melody which captures the feeling.
   The beauty of it all is that it totally depends on us as to how we feel . If you want to feel differently find the ingredient accordingly but be very sure that its something you feel and nothing physical like food or alcohol. Because one is dealing with the mental side of things and therefore the physical things wouldn't work.
   When the sun rose in the distant horizon the birds chirped, the trees swayed, the gentle breeze carried the morning fragrance while i gazed from the window , it was a sight of the Hopeful Today !

Love and Life

   There's some part of me which probably holds me back when trying to write about Love . A feeling most people i am sure would feel . This is the "there's nothing called love" kind of feeling . I have been there , sometimes in someway even now the feeling does persist . But then i realize there's no life without love. I ask a simple question -can you live with hatred in your hearts ? Some might call it neutrality but i say you would still have to love being neutral .
    I have heard the phrase since school days that Love is Blind ! It is true but what amazes me is that there's a certain thrill and madness about going blind in Love . Maybe that is the fun . The fact that you could get lost in each others eyes and never wanting to blink is a true gesture of human emotions. But not everybody has the knack of expressing it . I believe that everybody wants to be loved and love their close ones with all their heart. But as i said not everybody can express it the right way and maybe the right way is the wrong way for the other person .
   And when both of them lay by their sides looking at the sky with stars twinkling in their eyes , there's no need for any verbal expression. The silence and the heart felt feeling conveys the message.
   One of the other things i feel is that Love as is Life needs to be earned and so it has its value and importance. And not always are you lucky to have loved the right person or thing . So your thirst for love always stays until you find it . I mention "a thing" in the previous line and why not? It can be a love for Astronomy or Physics or Music. And so there is Love and hence Life and if one hasn't felt the madness and the passion to pursue it , he hasn't lived . 

Joe Satriani -The Art of Expression

          "My teacher was impressed upon me that i might wanna develop my own opinion on each one of these modes(scales in layman terms) of music. So how do you do that - you write the notes down, memorize them and go on to recognize them when they are coming at you from some other source. And then you go past the memorization and visualization stage and all the concepts of music then blur out to only remain as emotional themes and the goal then is to bring in a certain feel and expression to these themes and see if one can switch from one to the other , which requires good amount of concentration ! " I quote the legendary guitarist and musician Mr. Joe Satriani .   
          The great man says it and it is so true - "There are thousands of them out there, they know their chords, all notes of all scales and the can play fast but they lack expression." He also points out how important it is to have a message in songs. It is quite incredible how this creative aspect of a musician dies when one is trying to emulate their super guitar heroes. Guitar playing can be mechanical most times also suggesting that the creative thought process that we talk of here switches off and its just the fingers and sometimes your teeth calculating and dialing bizarre notes. This justifies the statement Joe makes, when he says playing from the heart with feel requires far more concentration.
         Maybe that is the reason why you as a guitar player might think you were playing well one day and that you felt it was there and that the notes just blended well to make a soaring melody . The next day you wake up to find you have lost the magical touch and then the consequential disappointment and the questions lingering in your head makes the experience even worse. Its so easy to give up and therefore you look at guys like Satch and Petrucci and you can tell they are the most down to earth people because they know its not about selling your soul to Satan one fine day and BAM ! a Guitar GOD  ladies and gentlemen !
       Its probably a realization where you know that Music or call it the The Art of Expression' is not a mountain to conquer but a state where you are in tune with the cosmos or call it this extraordinary energy that fills you with a certain rushed feeling, a feeling of hope and excitement which cannot truly be expressed in words but something that can only be shared  . No wonder it hits you hard when you watch Joe play his guitar. It suggests that Music requires you to tune yourself first before you even tune your instruments . Now one might wonder how you do that - maybe listening to your favorite  musician or a favorite song , in my case listening to Joe should be a good start !