When I was young, my senses brought pleasure

Life was a garden, memories I treasure

But I lost my passion as years wore on

Too busy to notice my senses were gone

When I was young, I loved my eyesight

Colors and sounds filled me with delight

But over time color turned gray

And sound became noise all through my day

I was so sad and pain left a hole

‘Til noise turned to music and rescued my soul

Music inspired, while noise was empty

When noise turned to music

It saved me

When I was young, dreams I could touch

I tasted and savored; I loved life so much

I missed my senses when they slipped away

But the magic returned when music would play

I was so sad and pain left a hole

‘Til noise turned to music and rescued my soul

Music inspired, while noise was empty

When noise turned to music it saved me

When noise turned to music

It saved me

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My butterfly illustrations were originally commissioned as notecards early in my art career.

If you listen to my song, it will become clear to anyone with a heartbeat why my music has saved me! Click the blue links to play audio:

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MUSIC SAVED ME-12/22/15 Copyright 2015 by Judy Unger

MUSIC SAVED ME INSTRUMENTAL Copyright 2012 by Judy Unger– 

Link to performance on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJNgWdQ9TbY

When I performed my song at Kulak’s Woodshed’s Open Mic Night, before I began there was a technical problem that took twenty minutes to solve. Ironically, it involved a piercing noise; I had to cover my ears. Hence my song’s lyrics of: “When noise turned to music,” was apt!

It was unbelievable for me, how my name was chosen from a hat to be the first performer out of fifty people on this open mic night. This has happened so many times that it is statistically amazing.

During the time I was waiting to sing and start the show, I was interviewed. There is an excerpt transcript at the end of this post. 

Clicking the blue links below plays audio:

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JUDY’S 3 MINUTE OPEN MIC INTERVIEW 12/4/12

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When I sing, I pour out my soul. My songs fill up my heart, and I can play approximately all forty of them by heart. There are many lyrics and chords and some of my songs even have two variations of chords to be played with a capo on different frets. Many of my songs have unusual fingerings that are quite complex, as I enjoy creating unique guitar chords.

A lot of memorization is required of me!

I cannot adequately describe how I feel about the sound of my guitar. I do know that certain chords bring tears to my eyes.

I was never confident of myself as a singer and still am not. Certainly, I have improved over the last two years. Before that, I hardly sang for thirty years.

My arranger, George helps me to create gorgeous arrangements for my songs. We also create instrumentals because they allow me to enjoy an alternate version of my song without having to address my vocal ability. I have created many instrumentals and plan to market them soon. At this time, they are on the music page of my blog to be freely listened to.

When I listen to my instrumentals, the music speaks to me without words. 

Click the blue link below to read Part 1 of this song story: 

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#310 WHEN NOISE TURNED TO MUSIC

Overall, George is very shy, and I don’t write about him too often. He rarely goes on the Internet; and when he isn’t creating music, he reads philosophy books. He did not want me to share his picture or last name.

I really felt this way as a child.

George and I began working on my new song. Sometimes, I recorded guitar tracks at home and he added instrumentation to them. But for this particular song, I wanted his input.

We began first by outlining the verses and choruses. I usually provided him with chords and sang passages as we worked. For this song, I would record the guitar tracks later on. He tapped while I sang to pick out the tempo.

We started with our first instrument. George had at least seven keyboards. He would close his eyes and try to feel which one would have the magical sounds we were looking for on a particular day.

It was a painstaking process for us to choose a sound. Sometimes we would both listen to hundreds of instruments before finding “the one.” Many of the sounds were bizarre, yet we never knew when we’d find that perfect one for my song. I was open to his ideas, even though he knew that I wasn’t excited about some of the stranger ones. He would sigh and say, “I know you won’t like this one, but I think it’s great.” I would listen and trust his intuition.

But often I wasn’t really as open as I could be. I hardly ever wanted drums or percussion. My favorite sounds were flutes. There were zillions of strings and George was very particular about those. He loved adding a bass. Initially I wasn’t excited about it, but began to appreciate what it added to my song.

When George discovered a beautiful melody for a solo area, sometimes I would hum along with him to develop it further. He hardly ever wrote anything down and he would experiment. He called it “jamming” and many times he’d lament that he should have recorded a beautiful interlude when he was just goofing around.

Often, his amazing counterpoints were just that – accidental. Still, it was mind-boggling for me how he knew exactly how the arrangement would sound when he added five more instruments.

Sometimes, I marveled how music was like a painting. When I used to create watercolor paintings, each layer of color would subtly alter the layer below it. As George began weaving different sounds together, my song would to come to life. The entire process was so beautiful that I wept tears he couldn’t see.

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“Music Inspires”

My lyrics are my subconscious speaking. Sometimes it starts with a story. This song began with my parable “When Noise Turned to Music.”

The reality that allowed me to find my lyrics came from deep unhappiness in my personal life. Every night, the TV was always on in my bedroom and it drove me crazy; I could not think. I doubt if I will ever watch one again. The yapping dog did not allow me to speak. My husband was kinder to him than to me.

I chose not to use all of the comparisons that I had in my story about noise versus music. My lyrics only described noise as empty. Suffice to say that noise was my metaphor for all the chaos that was manifested in my life for many years. Noise also represented confusion.

My confusion was about whether I had the courage to change my life, rather than accept a condition where I was suffering.

But I also had spiritual confusion.

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And it was music that brought clarity back to my life and represented my spiritual awakening.

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I am so grateful that I have music to give me joy. This has been a difficult time in my life and so much adjustment is required. My 31-year marriage is over and I am living on my own for the first time in my life (with two teenagers). My father died six months ago and my mother has severe dementia and that holds challenges.

There is no doubt that my music continues to save me. I remember how I’ve written those words many times over the past two years. Once again, my subconscious spoke to me. When I wrote the lyrics “music saved me,” they easily spilled forth from my lips to become the last line. It was because music was so mesmerizing and comforting, that I knew my life would never be drab or empty again.

The concept of “being saved” did sound a little desperate. It made me think of circumstances such as being saved from drowning or a fire – of saving one’s life.

I mulled over some alternate lyric choices for my song, such as: my music freed me or my music changed me.

I had to go with my music saving me – especially now.

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INTERVIEW AT KULAK’S WOODSHED’S OPEN MIC ON 12/4/12:

(My words are in purple)

Hi Judy, my name’s Diana.

Hi, Diana!

How are you?

I’m great!

Good. Do you guys mind if we just talk for a minute and ask some questions – songwriter-to-songwriter stuff? Somebody’s going to pull the plug any minute and say let’s get started.

No problem – I’m honored.

Until that happens, where are you from?

I live in this area. I actually grew up in North Hollywood and just moved back to North Hollywood because I’m going through a divorce after 31 years of marriage.

You know, that’s something to write about!

I do write – I’m a writer and a musician.

Excellent. How long have you been writing songs?

I wrote songs when I was a teenager until the age of twenty when I got married. Then I stopped for 30 years.

And now you’re back to it – Yay!

Actually, I’m going to let you in on a secret.

Okay, what’s your secret?

My songs erupt from me and I got divorced because of a song. I wrote a song that expressed my true feelings that I couldn’t tell my husband – it just came out of me. And then I wrote a song about what music has done to my life. I would say the reason I’m happy now is because of music.

What a great place to share that feeling. You say the songs erupt out of you. Do the words come out and then the music or . . .?

It all comes out at once in different ways – sometimes it’s the chords, sometimes it is the lyrics and sometimes it’s all together. I had a child that died twenty years ago and my music healed me. With music I smile because it makes me alive. I love my music.

That is so, so wonderful.

That’s my story.

How many of you guys feel like that? I share that with you.

Do you? Because I didn’t do it for 30 years . . .

Me, too!

Really? I love this! So, it’s kind of like being born again.

Like, “I’m back!”

And my songs are all babies. They were seeds and they were planted when I was young, and now I got to grow them.

Yeah, excellent! That is so, so sweet.

Thank you.

And what kind of genre would you say that you write in?

I’m a “healing musician.” My music heals me and I’m hoping it’s helpful to other people. I write to people about courage to change their life, ability to feel love even though they’ve lost someone and my book about my story will be coming out soon.

Oh, that’s wonderful. Come back and let us know – we’ll have a launch party for you!

Oh my god, thank you. I’d love that!

The word is out – it’s getting close . . .

It’s a good thing I’m not nervous anymore!

Judy, how is it that you got called first again? What do you do? Are you a magnet in there?

I think god is in the room with me – I feel so blessed and appreciative of my life. I never was a religious person, and when I think of music – it saved me. Some people think god saved them. To me, music and god could be the same thing.

You know, it’s all about how you interpret it. Is it a new song you’re playing tonight?

Brand new! The name of my song is “When Noise Turned to Music,” I think. Actually, it might be music saved me.

So basically, we will tell you what the title of your song is when you’re done.

Anybody vote – “Music Saved Me” or “Noise Turned to Music?”

Right off the bat I think, “Music Saved Me.”

You know what, that’s the last line of the song.

It sounds better.

That’s it, then!

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© Judy Unger and http://www.myjourneysinsight.com 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Judy Unger with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.