Sharing my online emotions via music.

An old friend and I used to regularly play online chess each day when we both got in from work.  We’d get home, turn on our computers, make a cup of tea as we waited, then turn on our online messaging screens and chess game and start our evening of chess, chat and inevitably where I am involved, music.

As we played our game, discussed our day and shared our views on a variety of topics, I would be hunting out the best tracks on YouTube to compliment what we were talking about or our mood at that time.

There was a definite seasonal aspect to the musical choices and during the light spring and summer months the music was more upbeat and fast paced and during autumn and winter it was more introspective and gentler.

I loved sharing the music that has shaped me with my friend and it also made a wonderful backdrop to the chess battles we had on our screens.  Usually we would start our evening listening to a particular track, normally our hot favourite of that week or month.  For a time it was ‘The Walk’ by Imogen Heap, then it was ‘Hide and Seek’ by the same artist and another one I remember was ‘Crosses’ by Jose Gonzalez.  We would sing (type) the lyrics back and forth to one another and revel in the sublime music and lyrics on offer.

The best part of this was that although we were in separate locations, we were still able to connect our emotions via the listening of music.  It is all well and good to write ‘I am feeling happy’, or ‘I am feeling melancholy’, but to write the same thing and then send over a link to a song that embodies that emotion is far more expressive.  It was wonderful to share our thoughts and ideas and have the connection that music gave us.  Plus, it was good to see my friend the next day for morning coffee and laugh about our shared ‘online singing’ or relive a specific track that had particularly resonated for one of us.

Not only can music express what I am feeling for myself, but in this instance it also expressed what I was feeling to someone else who I wasn’t physically with.  Even if my friend didn’t understand exactly what I was feeling or trying to explain, they had a better idea than normal due to our shared experience of music.

I will always remember those evenings of chess and chat fondly and when I hear certain songs I am transported back to those many hours we spent putting the world to rights, wrangling over a chess position and sharing our love of all things that move us to our very core.