"No Quarter," - A Musical Love Story
I’m going to be incredibly self-indulgent here and tell a little story of how I fell in love with music.
It isn’t the only story of course – as is the way with the true passions of our lives – but it is a very significant one on my musical journey.
It starts with a song called “No Quarter,” by Led Zeppelin. I was perhaps ten when I heard the song. That’s one of the advantages of having an older brother deeply invested in music – the early exposure to such masterpieces as this song truly seeded the passion in me for music.
Likewise, having musical instruments floating around the household and desperately wanting to join my older siblings in their musical ventures, was fundamental to the foundations I now have as a musician. (Thanks brothers!)
But this song…
It is difficult to explain, as it is tinted with a child’s openness to wonder and awe. But “No Quarter” captured me in a way that is spoken of only in Folklore, in ancient stories of Myth, where fey spirits appear in the woods to dance and enchant you with their song – if you succumb, they take your spirit away to the fey world, the place of magic and chaos, to join in their dance forever.
Simultaneously, it transported me to a world of wonder, of epic journey, where dark rider’s come “bearing news that must get through,” and heroes must stand up against great evils for the fate of humankind.
Indeed, it evoked the word Quest, and allowed me to experience its meaning, rather than just memorise it.
The sounds that gave the track its magic came from a keyboard, my brother likely informed me.
“If that’s what a keyboard can sound like, I have to learn how to play a keyboard!”
Because after hearing it, I simply had to learn how to play this song.
The quest itself was to figure out how to make this small thing with black and white keys* sound like the… well… like the sounds I was hearing.
Bing! That note was definitely wrong.
Biing! That note sounded closer…
Biiiing! That note was correct!
“Which note was that? The white key between that pair of black keys. OK, got it. I'll remember that note now.
Now, on to the next note.”
And so on, and so forth.
OK, I would not recommend anyone try to learn an instrument this way. It’s reinventing a wheel without even knowing you’re doing so, and it ultimately creates unnecessary handicaps for future learning.
But music… by the Gods, it is truly something special, something we all recognise as one of the last true wellsprings of magic in our world. To hear beautiful melody and have your heartstrings pulled by it. To feel rhythm and have your body possessed by it. To swim in harmony, and have your spirit lifted by it.
All in that single song, I somehow recognised – though didn’t fully comprehend – that I had just discovered something truly magical and transformative.
So, shall I step back with a recommendation, just for the hell of it? Learn a musical instrument (and if you call my brother for bass or guitar lessons in the next 10 minutes, you’ll get a free car…rot). But you don’t even have to go that far. Just pick that song that you really, really love, and learn how to play that. Learn it on whatever instrument you want to play, even if that’s simply using the kitchen bench as a drum to tap (trust me, you can get some good sounds out of a kitchen bench)
Don’t stress about the how – nobody is going to see you stumble along in your Quest if you don’t want them to. Don’t learn the song authoritative figures tell you that you should learn, because that’s boring, and a sure way to kill fun.
No. Learn the song you are passionate about. I know you have one.
Then follow that passion and, trust me, you will figure the rest out. Don't be intimidated by how much you don't know, because the fun is knowing you have that much to look forward to.
And you will relish every step, celebrate every victory, welcome every challenge along the way.
And once you start the journey, you just might find yourself falling down a rabbit hole…
So, sometime later, I became obsessed with making that same keyboard sound like that awesome song by “The Doors” my brother showed me. I think it was called “When The Music's Over”...
Till next time, for another self-indulgent chapter of “How To Procrastiwrite.”
*and thank you, Nouno and Nouna, for that divine gift.