I am a Thinker

Who is Daniel Shorb the Thinker?

I am a thinker. I’m always thinking. I can’t turn it off. I have often been accused of ignoring someone that I simply didn’t see, because I was thinking. And I think differently. I see things most others don’t see. I see inconsistencies. I see that one thing that is different from the rest. I see typos. I see misspellings and un-parallels on menus. I see an extra space  between words. Did you see that one? I notice things. I read signs. When I travel, I read signs aloud. It drives my wife crazy. I notice when a name in a different font was added later to an office sign. I notice people’s unusual names and spellings. I notice what shoes you are wearing. I notice if you are left-handed. I notice if your glasses are crooked. I notice seemingly random patterns on floors and walls, and study them to determine where the pattern repeats. I notice when a sign or picture is not level. I notice when a band member is marching out of step. When I walk into a new place, I immediately spot things that are wrong or inconsistent. When I see an error or discrepancy on TV, I spontaneously speak about it—out loud. I answer questions that are asked in commercials. My wife says I talk to the TV. 

I’m an expert at finding things wrong. And I’m still looking for someone who will pay me for finding things wrong! I am uniquely qualified to be a proofreader. 

An overbearing part of my musical thinking world is my subconscious mind. When I am idle or quiet, there are endless melodies with harmonizations going through my mind. I wake up with them, and they go with me everywhere I go, whether driving or riding in the car or sitting at home. Sometimes they are in my dreams. Anytime I’m not using my brain to do something in particular, I can have this problem. I call it a problem, because I can’t consciously turn it off. We all occasionally find ourselves humming a tune that we may not realize we just heard, but this is different. Quite often I find myself fingering the music on an imaginary trumpet or the piano. Sometimes I realize I’ve been subconsciously arranging a reharmonization, or changing the meter of the song. Sometimes it’s just a harmonic progression loop. It keeps going and going. And I can’t stop it. If this happens at a time when I cannot start doing an engaging activity, I am stuck with it. I continue to “play” even while I am consciously telling myself to stop. When this happens, the only way I can eradicate the music (and quite often it’s something I’m not particularly fond of, or something I am extremely tired of) is to substitute another composition that is less nerve-wracking. If you read this far I will give you a gift card to the restaurant of your choice. Over a period of a few months, I made a list of some songs that were playing in my mind when I woke up. It is quite an eclectic collection of music heard or learned during my entire lifetime. I’d Rather Have Jesus, Jesus Is Coming Again, Tu lo sai (Italian art song), He Lives, Cinnamon and Clove, My Baby Does the Hanky-Panky, I Swear, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Ricky Don’t Lose That Number, Smile, Chapel in the Moonlight, Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, I’m Almost Over You, London Bridge, When They Ring Those Golden Bells, The Ecumenical Movement, Near the Cross, Deep River Woman, There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood, Tea for Two, Red Roses for a Blue Lady, When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again, The Man in the Flying Trapeze, and You Only Live Twice. You can’t make this stuff up. 

In spite of my thinking quirks, some of my students told me they would be interested in reading my blogs. With this website I am pleased to finally share some of my thinking ideas with someone who wants to read them.

Photo by Dwight Walters Photography