Rumple 1

Joah Rumple
Sarah Sadlier
English 111

Reflective Essay: Music

Many would say I listen to music, but to me this phrase only undercuts what I
experience when I hear a song. Like all others I enjoy a catchy tune but when I hear a song I hear
every single note, each individual sound, I hear how each instrument works together. I hear how
the words coincide with the sound. I do not listen to music but hear it and experience it and like a
volley from a firing line I feel each piece dig deep in my bones and in the totality of this I feel
how the song is and what the song is and by this I feel what this person is. In my ability to break
apart music from its finished piece to the scattered puzzle pieces I gain the ability to create my
own songs. The influence I draw allows me to understand how music and words work together
and with a hint of myself in each aspect it becomes its own unique work just as I am my own
unique person.
I began writing stories at a very young age and I dreamed of sharing my stories with the
world. I focused a great deal on poetry and I cherished poetry. I wrote tales of life tangled into
the web of poems. I felt the only true way people can hear what I have to say is through my pen,
through my words. The writing of poetry became prominent as I grew older and I even wrote a
play that was at its root a long poem. Around the pinnacle of my poetry years I also began
learning music. I was teaching myself how to play a range of instruments and the skill came to
me swift. I had stumbled upon a talent, a gift and it unleashed as a swollen, raging river
obliterates the fragile dam. The two talents I had would collide, and at the meeting point of these

Rumple 2
two skills would come my most important personal revelation. The two combined became songs
and I began writing them.
I struggled with a direction. My love for music knew no prejudice towards a specific style
yet I needed to do what my ability would yield and most importantly be myself so I could, in my
music, reflect myself and then one day I heard a song. It was something strange to my ear but it
was beautiful. The wail of the harmonica the wine of the lap steel guitar. It was country music,
the classic, rugged, raw, and honest country music. I could sing along and play along and the
stories evoked such emotion. I was put in the shoes of a million people and felt all their
experiences just by hearing the various stories of these songs that were new to me. This was my
direction and on no other path could I have been more myself.
I wailed on the harmonica, I strummed my guitar. I embraced the deep baritones of my
voice and began telling stories in my lyrics. I told tales that were of my experience and tales of
the experience of others all with the purpose of communicating and creating something that
made someone else somewhere feel something. I had found not only a sound but in doing this I
began to better find myself and understand who I am. Each song I write, each song I play is a
reflection of me and just as when I listen, each time I play music I experience it and in this great
raw honesty I get to connect with those who lend an ear. The human experience, our pains, our
joys are common and mostly shared so as I speak of these things I get to connect with another
person perhaps even a stranger and to me it is a great statement to the human experience and to
sharing this world and to love and life and most importantly it reminds me that those around me
are my fellows and we will always share the bond of being human.