Is a Song in Your Heart?

Someone once said, I don’t care who writes the laws if you will let me write the songs. Music is a big influence in our lives.

It sometimes seems that music makes the world go around. Job 38:7 says, “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy”. So, was there music at the time of Creation?

When I was about 8 years old, my parents bought an upright piano, an older brother paid for my lessons and I was on my way.

My first piano teacher was a stern, white-haired Englishman. He had a small studio in an upstairs room downtown.  Mr. Stone was a stickler: I must curve my fingers and play on the tips of my fingers. He wanted to hear my nails click on the keys; however,  my fingernails had to be short. I must always enter and exit the piano bench from the right side and my backbone must be straight! No slumping on the bench was allowed. Thirty minutes every day was my minimum practice time at home. My first piano book was Folk Songs and Famous Pictures for Piano Beginners by Mary Bacon Mason. I still have the book, an antique by this time. 

 I don’t remember my mother singing but I do remember she whistled when she was happy. If I heard Mom whistling, I knew all was right with the world. Dad, on the other hand, didn’t whistle but would sing. He also would sometimes dance a fast Irish jig. Dad liked to sing to his grandchildren. I too used to sing to my son and later, to my grandbabies as I rocked them to sleep.

Someone penned these words a long time ago, They were set to music and sung by several different artists: “Without a song, the day would never end; Without a song, the road would never bend; When things go wrong, A man ain’t got a friend Without A Song.”