Songs and Memories

Do you have songs that trigger a specific moment and time in the past that you can pin point?

There is this Japanese boy band called Arashi that I follow since my late teenage years.

I often had music or a movie playing in the background while I work on my essays and theses at univeristy. 

Which sometimes work in my favour but at times it became a way for me to procrastinate. In fact, I am currently writing this while I watch the second disk of a Arashi concert.

Each song associated with a memory, an emotion, a location, or a stage in my life.
Most of the time it is a combination of all of them with a story that comes with it.
When I listen certain songs, it brings me back to that exact moment.
Some memories are hazy but some can be very vivid. 

I think this is because I really enjoyed listening to them while I was thinking different things. 

One song is called "Oh, Yeah!" which is a really good music to listen while you riding a bicycle down a gradual hill. I used to listen to this song on my iPod or MD(Mini Disk) player(I sound really old here) while I ride home from high school. Every time I listen to this song, it makes me feel nostalgic and take back when I was riding my bicycle home in my uniform feeling the wind on my face.

*2025 Ellen here. You can listen to the song here: Oh Yeah! Arashi

Another song that brings back good memories is called "Shake it!". This story is silly one.
It was when I was at university in the winter semester, I watched Japanese and Korean dramas with one of my American friend called Becca regularly then. We were watching this exact concert DVD I am listening now together in my dorm room. We were enjoying the concert and I remember that we had to pause the DVD because the dance was quite unique and seductive for a Japanese boy band and the lyrics made us laugh a lot as English speakers. We laughed a lot!

*2025 Ellen here again. The Concert name was called “ARAFES NATIONAL STADIUM 2012” and you can see the dance here if you are interested.

The memories and emotions I feel when I listen to a song are not always positive. They can trigger negative ones too. I do try and prepare myself but it does not always work out. There are times where I hear a song randomly in public which do bring back both positive and negative mixed emotions and memories like: nostalgia, emptiness, the feeling of missing someone.
The intensity of the emotions I do feel has a gradient of strength depending on the situation I am in. I do try and shift away from it and try and think positively. It is very hard and I think it will take time to master it.  

"Wake me up" from Avicii is a song that reminds me of one period of life at university which was difficult. I can relate to some of the lyrics which added to some of the uneasy emotions I feel when I listen to it. However, it also brings me back good memories like meeting wonderful people and dancing with them to this song. It reminds of my friends and make me miss them at the same time. Missing them makes me want to do my best to work towards meeting them again!!

I miss my friends so much now!!

Are there any songs that remind you of a specific moment(s)?
Let me know!

Ellen  

Headphones DIY

Recently I have noticed the fake leather part of my headphones started to come apart.

I bought these maybe 3 years ago and I still like them! 

They are good noise canceling DJ headphones from Audio technica.

I enjoy my music and at the time,  these were on special and was about 2000yen (about AU$20,US$20) off the original price. 

I could not continue using it without fixing it. I came up with the idea of covering it with some kind of ribbon. But I thought using normal ribbon might be boring and I was nit keen to use any thing to glue it to the head phones. 

In the end I used black and red leather twine. 

I rapped around black leather twine around the headphones firmly from the right side to the left. I tucked the ends that they will not come undone. 

When all of it was covered, I randomly rapped the read leather twine on the top of the black leather.

And, this is how it turned out!!!

I am really happy how it turned out. I like it even more that it feels more personalised. :)

I now want to do more DIY and crafting :) 

See you soon! 

Ellen 

Muisc and my own Ukulele

Music has been in my life from when I was little. I was fascinated at how music was played and was always amazed at how people can play musical instruments. 

As being a young girl, I thought playing the piano was easy and just had to "press the keys" in order to make music. 

I was wrong.
I still liked playing the piano but I really disliked and I got board easily from playing the same tune over and over again and eventually stopped going to lessons.
I still continued music by singing in the school choir club until I entered Junior high school.

I still loved music and still had the curiosity to learn. In one part of the Music lessons we had in junior high school we had to learn how to play the guitar and I was really excited.
There were multiple guitars in the house when I grew up because my father played it when he was young and on very occasions he would get it out and play it.
The lessons were fun and we had to play "Stand by me" by Ben E. King. But one thing I struggled the most was holding onto the strings and play chords, and changing between chords. Yes, it is comes with practice but I have quite petite hands and when I hold most of the guitars I struggle.

Time went by and I still wanted to be able to play the guitar or the base or anything that I can join in to enjoy music. I often want to the Jazz salon and met many local musicians in my home town when I was back from university.  In my last year of university I borrowed a guitar called Taylor Mini from my father. it was small enough for my hand to go around it and I loved it!
I practiced and practiced and I was able to play some notes but still I wound difficult.

After playing on the guitar for a while I saw a Ukulele in my fathers room and started strumming and I found it was much more easier than the guitar! Since then I borrowed several Ukuleles from him(he has enough instruments to pen a shop!) and practiced.

After I moved, I wanted my own one. my own one that I like the sound of and fits my hands nicely. I thought back and forth and I found this ukulele which I can call my own Ukulele!
I am going to practice as much as I can to get better! :)

I hope you liked this short story :)

See you soon!
Ellen