On Friday, I had the profoundly weird experience of singing a song I didn’t realize I knew by heart.
It happened at a Boy Scout Camp bonfire; the staff ended singing a traditional campfire song, and I started singing along – while having no idea that I had it memorized. As I sang, I didn’t know what the next words would be…but they came out of my mouth just the same, all in the right order and with the right tune.
I had clearly learned this song in my youth, but hadn’t sung it in roughly a quarter century, and in the intervening time I had learned, memorized, composed, arranged, and conducted hundreds and hundreds of pieces of music.
It was profoundly weird, but also profoundly joyful to discover this song was still in me. Music is incredibly deeply encoded in our minds and souls, and once learned by heart, never truly lost.