A Journey of Musical Chaos

Monday Letters#

Around this time, a few years ago, I found myself seated beneath a palm tree alongside my brothers and friends. We had recently made the decision to form a musical band and embark on a journey of writing and performing our own songs.

Now, it's important to note that we weren't particularly gifted musically. Despite possessing basic skills on a few instruments, none of us had, in fact, received any prior musical training. We were simply five boys with funny hairstyles, driven by the desire to infuse more melody into the world.

Allow me to skip the suspense and reveal that our journey didn't unfold quite as expected. We were young, full of energy, and didn't take ourselves too seriously. The first time we performed as a group, it was so bad that we almost burst out laughing during the whole thing. The chosen leader singer (Yours truly, ladies and gentlemen!) had missed the starting cue and would go off-note many times into the song. My younger brother, the pianist, would lose himself in his own melodious creations, oblivious to the fact that the performance had ended three minutes earlier. Meanwhile, the drummer (my elder brother) would deafen the rest of us and the audience throughout the course of the performance. Yep, it was a spectacle of madness.

However, something astonishing occurred after that calamitous performance — the audience gave us a mind-blowing ovation! I mean, the audience which was filled with my mum, her friends, our friends, and other members of the church in attendance were clapping. It was unbelievable especially considering the torture we had subjected their ears to. Whether they clapped out of genuine admiration (which I highly doubt) or as a collective sigh of relief from the mayhem that had unfolded, I still cannot fathom to this day.

And because I remain clueless about their reasons for the applause, I cannot offer any lessons from this tale.

Nevertheless, it would be a disservice if I didn't share that despite our disastrous debut, our band went on to deliver amazing performances throughout the region! We even had the honor of hosting a songwriting masterclass attended by over 300 participants from various parts of Africa, and just a few months before our band disbanded, we were chosen to represent the entire zone in a talent hunt organized by our church headquarters! Would you believe that?  Furthermore, we composed more than 3 original songs and became much better at our respective crafts.

How did we transform from a complete mess to reaching those extraordinary heights? Well, I can only point to ‘practice and resilience’. We accepted we were shitty and dedicated countless hours to practice and improve in every conceivable way: coordination, stage performance, songwriting, singing, instrumental prowess—you name it! We started off scoring 0/100 (or something close to it), in all those areas and eventually reached an approximate 60/100. That was progress!

As I mentioned earlier, I'm uncertain if there's a clear-cut lesson within my story. However, there's one thing I can bet my entire being on: if you devote hours upon hours practicing and doing something (anything), you would become undoubtedly good at it. It's not rocket science; it's not a mystical phenomenon. It’s just a beautiful superpower we possess as humans!

Warmly,

Dee.