Oudacious

It has been almost eight years since I first fell in love with the Arabic style of music. It was August 1999 and Matt and I went to see the Tea Party at Shellys in Shellharbour. Jeff Martin, lead singer of the Tea Party was on stage and he came to the front of the stage and he said "this is the Oud"..... and started to play the song "the halcyon days" off the album Triptych.... I was sold....

So now I am taking lessons in this magical and mysterious instrument of the East... Mr. Nasser is my instructor and I am on my road to taking my first musical lessons in over ten years! It's amazing that I have never invested more time in music. For something I love so much I really have let this one slide. It has always been on my list of things to do but it has never become reality.

The idea of reading music... My eyes lit up when I started to realise that there is this whole language that music has, written down, there for the taking and I have been up until now totally illiterate... I remember hanging with Farah's friends in London, all of them musical geniuses, Farah included of course. I just put it all in the "wow, wish I could do that" box and left it there. It's funny how I do that so often, but no longer. I am learning the language of music and I am learning it through the oud....

I can't even begin to explain how happy I am to know that being with Farah means that music will be central to my future. It is something we put on the list of things to consume and not produce.... Too often we forget that music is about expression and understanding, not just a sexy film clip and a few exciting sound bites....

And next week I am off to Estonia to see Farah sing in an Opera competition, and thus my life of music continues. Very, very exciting times :-D