Take A Lesson On Row Your Boat...

Music is the great mystical voice which comes from, and brings us to, the core of our being, and that is why I offer you this "essay" in musical form. I wish to communicate a deep emotional experience that I found induced in me one day as I meditated upon the nature of life. It was a number of years ago, when I found myself with a need to penetrate deeper into life, my life, and this thing we call "the world".

I found myself with a strange fascination for a piece of music, a very simple song that is hardly taken seriously by most people as a piece of music worthy of much consideration, and yet, it seemed to possess me and call to me to give it my attention, as if there was something it wanted me to hear, and to learn. This song kept coming into my head at random times for a number of weeks.

One day I was sitting with my guitar out in the woods, by the side of a stream where I liked to visit and practice, and the music to the child's nursery song "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" began once again playing in my head. As I thought about the words to the song, I began to play the song on my guitar, and feeling into the music, and it took a new kind of shape in my mind and emotions. The music revealed a new kind of significance to the simple words of the song, and I realized that these simple words and melody contained a deeper level of meaning about life itself, all the more profound for wearing the deceptive guise of a children's "nursery" rhyme.

"Row row row your boat, gently down the stream,

Merrily, merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream....."

Yes, in the midst of the busy, turbulent world in which we live, and in which we grew up and left our childhood with its simple and yet profound grasp of what is truly important in life for the worries and troubles of the "real world", here, it seemed, was a message, a reminder, of a deeper truth, and a consoling message of peace for anyone taking the time to listen. Life can be, perhaps should be, a gentle voyage, one that can be taken merrily, with the simple enjoyment of a child, as long as we do not take it more seriously than it deserves, as long as we do not forget that we are only here for a little while. From a vaster perspective, will not this life someday be seen to be nothing but a dream? Would our lives not be greatly enhanced by remembering the temporary nature of this earthly excursion, especially in the midst of the daily struggles upon which we seem compelled to add endless layers of concern, drama, and even tragedy? Would this not help us, in the words of a popular author "not to sweat the small stuff, because it's all small stuff"?

Philosophers throughout history have felt that anything that is temporary, limited by time, bound by fate to come to an end, cannot not be ultimately REAL. That which is REAL must be eternal, beyond time. And so, this life is seen by all the worlds religions to be not of the same order of Reality as that from which it came, or to which it is going. I have always tended to agree with this.

To remember this, and to live our lives on the basis of this, is to have access to a kind of peace that is not knowable otherwise. When I play this music, I feel that. I believe this wisdom is contained in the music of this simple song, which is not just a simple song, but a "musical myth", and like all myths, it exists to communicate a profound truth to the human race.

"Myths", those ancient archetypal stories and legends that recur throughout human history, are found to contain the same essential characteristics in all times and places, merely changing the names, locations, and local flavor and customs. They are the waking dreams of the human psyche, and that is why it has been said that " a myth is something that never happened but is always true".

I hope you find yourself brought closer to this truth of life that none of us should ever stray far from. Click here to see excerpts, and a musical analysis of how I went about arranging "Row Your Boat". You will also find information below about how you can download the entire piece AND the complete score, fully fingered for both hands.

"Row Your Boat", the phenomenal arrangement for acoustic guitar by Jamie Andreas is now available in our shopping cart!