My journey through music

By Nico Cost for GlobalSouth.co

I like to share my experiences with others, including my musical experience with you. Please feel free to comment with your experiences and share what may connect nicely with what I write and share in terms of music.

Part 1: Personal life phases

In this first part, I walk through my life stages in big steps. I was born in 1962 in the city of The Hague in the Netherlands. Although The Hague was certainly a city of music even in my youth, I did not really come to love music myself until later.

This is a first writing in this area and possibly many more will follow. It depends on what I have to tell, my inspiration and also your need for stories and possibly new music to be discovered. Will you join me on my journey?

Play

Until I was 12 years old, I almost always played outside, summer and winter. Biking and playing soccer were my pastimes. Music was hardly played at home, so I did not grow up with it.

In high school, my classmates were into it. At the time, Tavares was very fashionable and they could sing along with the lyrics. I, however, had no affinity for it, probably because I can’t sing.

Tavares – Heaven must be missing an angel

Hear

Much later in life, I understood why I couldn’t memorize lyrics. My hearing is mostly focused on sounds and not on lyrics that I cannot place directly. When people read to me, I can’t follow it either.

That’s why I preferred music without lyrics, which in my eyes (or ears) is also a more pure form of music. The voice can be an instrument, but if I want lyrics I prefer to read a book or poem myself.

Space – Magic Fly

Dance

So my body is set on sounds and Disco was a wonderful beat to dance to. Sounds, by the way, enter directly into our bodies which is why so many people are oriented to music.

Nikola Tesla indicated that we begin to understand the universe better when we begin to perceive everything as energy, vibration and frequency. Everything is in constant motion, which is what life is. Nothing stands still and death does not exist.

Earth, Wind & Fire – Boogie Wonderland

Feel

In the 1980s there was an explosion of new music from which all kinds of new genres emerged. Then I also began to feel the music more and more in my body. I was always into “energy” and music went through my whole body.

There is also so much to choose from to share with you. I also realize that there is of course much more than the music I grew up with in the West. Only later did I spend endless evenings on YouTube.

AC/DC – Thunderstruck

Jump

From Disco to House was not a big step, and all those side roads were often delightful to take. More and more the genres were mixed together. People danced and jumped. Even just watching it gives you a thrill.

When you see all those young people dancing and having fun, it makes you happy. I can also derive a lot of pleasure from seeing others completely absorbed in the music. Even if I don’t really like the music, happy people make me happy.

HardStyle in Berlin

Rest

I can well imagine that not everyone likes as much different music as I do. Unknown makes unloved. Sometimes you also have to get used to something, because as with taste you can train your receptors.

Classical music, Jazz and Blues have never been my favorites, yet there are gems among them. The contrast between different types of music is sometimes great and yet I can hear and feel it strangely intermingled.

Lavinia Meijer – Metamorphosis (Philip Glass)

Meditate

Since 2012 I listen a lot to meditative music, to meditate or relax with a book or sudoku. To travel to another world for a while. Doing nothing, not having to do anything. Quietly breathing in and out. Calming the body and mind.

Ultimately, you can meditate to any music or seek true silence in the process. But to make it easier for beginning meditation you could use the following piece of music. Discover meditating.

Chen Yue – Trail of the Angels

Have fun watching and especially listening. Try to feel the music in your body. Step into the music. Get carried away on the waves that connect human beings to the divine world around us. Surrender and Be One.