That Other Sound

Scott Whitby, 2023

All my life, music to me was the words. I did not understand the rest of the sound. I like the stories and all that sound just made it hard to hear them. I wanted to know the rest of 'Killing Me Softly' and what became of 'Mr. Bojangles', in words.

I dreamed of making music but I thought the other sound could be made only by certain people. I thought you could either make it or you could not and I could not...that you were born with it or you were not. I couldn't tap my foot right. How could I ever make sound like that?

One day, inspired, I wondered if I put my fingers in the right place at the right time could I make the rest of the sound? I could memorize where to put my fingers and when to put them there. That must be the way certain people do it, really.

I started trying. Putting my fingers in the right place was not so hard. Putting them there at the right time was. But it was intoxicating. Then, as soon as I began to put them there at the right time and sing the story, my fingers would stop moving altogether.

I am learning to make that other sound the same way I learned everything else. I am grabbing it and holding it down until it quits fighting back. I know it will give up. Everything I have learned did. I learn things that way and it is a good way to learn, especially things that are hard.

I am going to keep trying. I will never know what those certain people know...the ones who can tap their foot right. I still think you can either make that other sound or you cannot. But I also think you can be one of those certain people if you hold on to it until it quits fighting back.

It fights back hard though. Real hard.