Five Beats in Late Spring

 After dinner we went out to the empty plaza of Gallivan Center and sat on a cement bench. Unlike the last time I was in Salt Lake City, despite the presence of the Santa Claus with the sign, there was no giant light-strung pole as a Christmas tree in the middle of plaza. The ice skating rink had been dismantled (it was shuttered due to the beer bug anyway, but they kept the lights on all night).

Now it was sunny in the early evening of Spring and warm enough that we didn't have to wear our jackets. Ginger let her feet dangle down and she started tapping them in rhythm on the concrete.

After a few seconds, I interjected, "ah, 5/4 time." Then I started imitating the rhythm of that time signature. She laughed at my seemingly random reference. She knew that I knew that she didn't know what I was talking about, but that it was one of my random references I like to make, pretending as if she had done something on purpose.

"Like Take Five by  Dave Brubcek," I said. Then I began tapping out the famous alternating three-beat then two-beat rhythm of that famous jazz piece, that gives it is distinctive feel.

I explained that I spent the late afternoon after my walk watching my new favorite Youtube channel, by a young British guy explaining the complexities of music theory in contemporary music, including one video on 5/4 time."

I explained that I loved music theory. I had learned chord theory years ago, when I was in college at Oregon, but that it was a subject that I could only appreciate through others. I somehow lack the ability to be a real musician. I can read music note by note, and understand the theory subject-by-subject, but when I step back and hear someone explain it who really understands it, like the guy who does those videos, I realize that it is not my natural talent. I know enough to appreciate the genius of those who truly understand it.

The same applies to musicians themselves. The idea that someone can hear the intricacies of chords and time signatures the way some people can seem like a magical ability beyond my mind to comprehend. It lets me understand how people conceive of subjects I understand, such as physics, in the same way. But it took me a long time to get that way with physics. It didn't happen overnight. It took many years.

"When I got to Willamette, I wanted to be either a music major or a physics major, because those were the only two subjects that were difficult to me. They were the only ones I couldn't. master right off the bat, I thought."

"I chose physics," I said. "I think it was the right choice," I said, looking up at the sunlit skyline of the city in the cool April air.