Music keeps you sharp

Yes, I meant the title to this blog post to be a pun. 🙂 Because it’s true! Listening to music or playing music … music keeps you aware, alert, keeps you in touch with your feelings and your thoughts … music keeps you sharp. You can choose music to create moods, create feelings.

There’s enough trouble in the world. There’s enough angst in growing “old” (or in being “young”). I choose to find music that makes me happy, makes me dance, or that makes me stop and wonder. I also choose music that brings me peace … ahh, that’s important.

I’d like to share a few videos of music with you in this blog post … music that makes me happy. And music combined with comedy can be such fun!

This first video makes me dance and smile. I have Irish ancestry, but even if I didn’t, this would made me tap my toes and want to play along with these folks. The young lad playing the Irish drum (the bodhrán) was 11 years old in this video. He’s fantastic. The word “bodhrán” is usually pronounced something like “BO-ron”, but not always. 🙂

Here’s another lively tune below. Anastasiia Tyurina was just 7 years old in the video below (several years ago). Look at the smile on her face and her body language … she loves playing the balalaika! Today she’s in her teens and playing professionally, not surprisingly! Russian people love peace as much as we do … and they love music as much too. Please don’t blame them for what the Russian government is doing. The Russian people are just like us, caught in the web of politics. I watch this 7 year old girl … and I want all of us to be like her.

Ah, and then there is Victor … Borge. Who doesn’t love him? He is a spectacular musician, pianist, and conductor … and he’s full of baloney. 🙂 You’ll see in the video below that even the musicians are caught off guard and laugh out loud. He’s magic. 🙂

Oh, you’ll need to turn your sound up … WAY UP!!! for this video below.

Fun stuff, eh?

Ok, now turn your sound back down to a regular volume.

One last video, below. The Topp Twins are New Zealand women. They are sisters, twins, known for their music, their comedy, and their humanitarian/political work. If you’d like to see a little bit of their serious music and energy in life, here’s a link to a video from 2011 that shows just a very tiny bit of their humanitarian work in New Zealand and around the world … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DajjJ74tMk … the video starts out with humor (and yodeling) and then moves on to things more serious and supportive of all humans on the planet. Each of these women is an “out” lesbian. Everyone understands that the humor and humanity in their comedy/music speak to everyone, to all of us. There are lots of their videos online on YouTube … and they have two CD’s out (I have both). I love their humor. They play serious music too, and they do goofy, funny shticks like the one below. The video below is from 2011. Wacko stuff! 🙂 I love it. Please enjoy.

See more of these gals on YouTube here … https://www.youtube.com/@TheToppTwins.

In keeping with the title of this blog post (“music keeps us sharp”), my last words for this blog post will be … don’t let yourself get too low, for too long, don’t B-flat for too long … find music you love that lightens your heart, that feeds your soul, and keeps your mind active so you can be happy, so you can be cool, and so you can see the world with joy and kindness, so you can see clearly, so you can C-sharp. 🙂 Sing and dance with joy and abandon!