There's nothing like some good music for setting a mood sometimes. That mood can, if you pick the piece carefully enough, be everything from wonder and delight to unease and tension, besides the usual sorrow and bouts of excitement and adrenaline that modern day music is so fond of cashing in on the easy use of. The human voice is memorable, accessible, and powerful to us for obvious reasons, but there's just something to be said for a string instrument. It can play at the heart so easily, and produce sounds that reach to us but aren't easily and directly interpretable like a voice. But somehow they're very easy to relate to and powerful to us. Something that close enough to what we naturally know that can easily produce sounds that vary, much like a voice, but is never quite easy to grasp. Anger, sorrow, in fine tuned nuance, and when you play it right it can sound completely alien- a dissonance in something that we know we should feel close to that sets the mind on edge better than any electronically synthesized soundtrack.
And in a game, movie, or hell even a date, the right music can make all the difference between a completely failed scene and something engaging and powerful.
Setting the tone.
It's an important thing for one who wants to be in control, if your preferences are like my own. I don't need to control every detail. At times it's a comfort to have it all before me, but in many ways I'm much more at home when I can deal with those that I know best and just know safely that others are doing likewise. Human nature makes us team players to some extent at least, after all. But I mostly want safety, security, happiness- not real control or power, not more than the faintest tease of temptation. I don't have many real, solid and definable goals at all. I like to explore the wonder and emotions my mind can produce and some of the treats the world has to offer, and nothing thrills me quite as much as having others share it with me.
Which is why I suppose this is a skill I need to learn.
I've never been a good GM, but I've had a talent for writing. I don't kid myself and think I'm amazing, but I know that when I set my mind to it I can set a scene well, I can produce results that strike a cord with people. Once in a while I can even get the music to go with it just right. But now I think I need to really look at this for all its worth, and not just some talent I have for writing.
How can I use it in my life? How can I take control, and help to shape the why myself or others look at it?
Safety is not a good approach, no. Without a gentle hand it can breed complacency or lack of care, lead to danger. Unfortunately I think I've let myself feel that already. What I need is comfort. Reassurance. Determination- to extinguish doubt with a confidence. Confidence is good- not about a lack of obstacles, but about the ability and being proactive in eliminating and over coming them. I've seen the things Tabi is capable of. If I could do this- if I could be in control enough to play the maestro, it would be a step- more like three and a half- forward. And if I could do that, surely I could find a way to fill myself with that kind of power.
Presence, and control. Strength of mind and spirit. It's all part of one piece. And if I can understand the subject well enough, be it myself or anyone else, it is little more but a proper composition to set the mood.
But where does one begin?
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