Art.

I've always looked at mood rings with an eye of skepticism. How would something as simple as a color changing ring, indicate how someone would be feeling at any given time. I never believed something inanimate would ever be able to capture the essence of a human emotion, let alone the whole collection of emotions.

Where the mood ring fails, music succeeds. The intangibility, the flow, the power, does a much smoother job of indicating what a mood is. Regardless of what I'm listening to, it encapsulates my entire being into sequences of intertwined, synergistic series of notes. However, the ability to express myself in such a fashion is incredible, and for one, I'm glad I can "vent" in such a way.

No pun intended, but the true key to my soul, lies in the piano. If any of you have been so lucky as to been in a practice room with me when I'm just playing something/anything, you've seen a piece of "me." Not the facade that everyone else gets to see from day-to-day. It's a privilege/offer that many have rescinded, but few have been wise enough to see/experience it.

The purest moment of all, is a piano, in a practice room, with the lights off, and it's like I've shut out all the world's distractions, nothing in my ears, just me, and the notes that play straight from my heart. A similar comparison would be of an inspired painter left alone in a room with four blank walls and no windows, and all the colors in the world available in a polished, 88-keyed, black and white easel. My fingers are the brushes, the notes are the strokes, the "music" created can be chicken-scratch, a doodle, a sketch, a line, a thought, a series, a classic, a masterpiece.