Bass, Treble, Jess

Jim Morrison, lead singer for The Doors once said “Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes.  You are free.”  My name is Jessica Burnham.  I’m currently a freshman in college, and like any college student or person in general, I love music.  It has been a part of my life ever since I can remember and I can’t ever see that changing. I believe the lyrics to a song are the best way to see how people think and who they truly are, and nothing can compare to that.  My father, who died when I was 9, made music a huge part of his life which transferred over to me.  He played guitar and minored in music and he loved bands like The Doors, The Beatles, Grateful Dead, and probably owned every record ever made by them.  Growing up listening to this music and watching my dad struggle to perfect every song he played on the guitar made me see music in a completely different way and really appreciate it.  Music is poetry; I don’t believe you can compare different genres to each other because it’s like comparing other people’s experiences to one another.  Music is about how the words make you feel with the melody in the background to go with it; it is a beautiful thing.  I believe writing music and poetry is one of the best ways to look at yourself in a new perspective to help you grow.  Whenever I was upset, I used to write lyrics down, even if it was just a line or two, and it felt like I was writing down whatever bad feeling I was feeling, and leaving it right there on the paper so I didn’t have to carry around those negative feelings anymore.  Looking back on it years later, I can look at those two short lines and remember exactly how I was feeling and what I was thinking when I wrote those lyrics down.  Only I knew what they meant, but to other people, it’s up to interpretation which is another amazing quality about music.  The process of writing lyrics and putting it to a melody with such meaning to where it can really make you think or change your mood and make you feel like dancing is the most interesting thing to me.  I realized this when one day when I was sitting outside of a restaurant in a terrible mood and a Journey song came on and I instantly felt better.  The way music makes you feel, emotionally and scientifically, is my main point in my blogs I will be posting.  No, I do not plan to major in music, or mix it, but I like to say that I listen to so many varieties that I can really appreciate everything from rap to opera and everything in between.  I cannot honestly think of a genre I think is better than the other.  Music is music and it is beautiful.