Music & Writing

This is a question and my answer from an online journalling list that I belong to. If you'd like to join the list http://lists.yeehaw.net/mailman/listinfo/journals Usually they pose a weekly question about the writing life that everyone discusses.
Q. Does your journal have its own soundtrack in your head? Do you listen to music while you write and is it anything in particular or just what's playing on the radio? Do you find the tone of your entries to be affected by what you're listening to? Do you ever write about music?

A. What a great question!! Music is an add-on in my life rather than my heartbeat. I've had many semesters of choral singing lessons and I can play piano and accordian on a very basic level but I'm nowhere close to an untrained person with any level of a gift for music. When I set out to write, I don't think about music and therefore have nothing playing in the background. The reverse can happen. If I start with music - with deliberately selecting a tape or cd, I don't skip around but rather go from beginning to end and when I start to lose interest, instead of shutting the music off, I start surfing until I find something that interests me to the level that I want to share what I've found or share a thought inspired by it.

My son, on the other hand, is a drummer. The drums express his emotions and when he's through drumming, he'll work on his screenplays or write song lyrics. When you read his writing, you can feel the rhythm of the drums. And that is why I know that my son is a thousand times more powerful a writer than I am. He has a gift. He writes from the soul. He puts his heartbeat on the paper.