Music: Clairaudience In Training

Our psychic abilities just don’t “happen.” We are in a lifetime of training; we just don’t know it.

My imagination, intuition, and music awareness were awakening as well. Like every kid my age, my parents decided it was a good idea for me to learn an instrument. We happened to have a double-decker Hammond organ in the house because my dad was a musician, and that is one of the instruments he played. So, organ lessons they were. Yay, why couldn’t it be something cool like a guitar? I would have even settled for a harp. Whatever.

Not to get into that whole scenario, but in a nutshell, it was a horrible experience! My music teacher scared the crap out of me, and I froze up every week for fear of getting yelled at by him. Oh, I so wanted to draw red all over him! What happened was quite interesting, and I didn’t realize what a significant part of my life this was until the moment I started typing about my music teacher.

I was not able to read music. I mean, it just took me a long time to figure it out. So, I listened to how the music teacher played it, then memorized it by ear. Every note, every stanza, page after page, was digested and stored somewhere in my mind’s depths.

When it came time for my weekly lesson, I played back the sound that I captured in my ears and replayed it perfectly, like a Savant. I did well and pulled this off for the longest time until my teacher caught on one day and said, “Ok, start from this measure and play it to the end.” Then, I knew I was screwed.

With both eyes wide open and not blinking, sweat began surfacing on my forehead like a whore in church. Staring at the music sheet for what seemed like hours, he said, “Well, when are you going to start playing?” I slowly lifted my hands and started moving them towards the keyboard as if I was going to play, and stopped.

“I can’t!” I screamed.

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“I can’t read the notes,” now fearing the worst, waiting for his reaction.

“What do you mean you can’t read the notes? You’ve been playing music for weeks now!” he said in an angry, old man’s voice.

He was horrified when he discovered that I wasn’t reading music at all, yet still played the music beautifully, foot pedals included. I was playing by ear.

“What the hell do you do all week when you’re supposed to be practicing and reading music?” he asked.

I do recall saying to him, “But I can play all the music you taught me, just not by reading the notes.”

“Now that I think about it, did it really matter that I couldn’t or didn’t want to read music? He should have applauded me for having such a keen ear. Instead, he scolded me. Even if a kid doesn’t do things as planned, it’s always a win-win if a positive is generated from a negative experience.”

My music teacher was shocked that a kid pulled the wool over his eyes and that he failed at his job. Here, he thought I learned everything he taught me, and yet I went about it my own way. I still learned all the music books, but it was all by ear.

This experience was a lesson learned for him as well. He quit shortly after that, thank god, and my music lessons were over. Oh, and the music I played by ear was Bach’s prelude in G minor, which was no easy feat.

Not knowing it at the time, this was my first lesson in clairaudience (which translates to clear hearing). Although my music encounters diminished over the years, when I did have the opportunity to tickle the ivories, my ears were as sharp as ever. I proceeded to paint, color, play music, and do anything that involved creativity.

Although I dreaded this entire sector of my life and was deathly afraid of my music teacher, it didn’t stop me from loving music. Was music a big part of my life? Not really, but it wasn’t until I turned 40 that I was brave enough to pick up an instrument again and learn it on my own.

I bought myself a 12-string guitar and reluctantly took lessons for just six months to learn the basics. I still felt that frightening feeling to my core as I played for my music teacher because, after all, I was again doing it all by ear. I archived this section in my life by getting a tattoo of a G clef over my heart to symbolize the love of music and all the lessons that I learned from it.

As a medium today, when I use my clairaudience, I think back to my very first music lesson in life and how those lessons helped me develop my musical skills.

I'll be sharing snip-its from the book I wrote, From Color To The Cosmos: Inside The Mind Of A Medium, available in my shop if you'd like a signed copy or on Amazon.