SAY IT!

JUST SAY IT........with a song.... SINGING was one of the activities my family enjoyed at home. Almost all can carry a tune, although this writer seldom had the center stage whenever the siblings are there.I simply can't compete with them!They are a boisterous and magnificent lot and my, oh my! HOW they sing! One brother had the same look as Jackie Chan when he was young... He can also make those kung fu moves as swift as Jackie but not as skillful. He had that long hair cropped like Jackie and his physique, altho not that perfect. Now, I call him "Jackie Tiyan"... His beer belly boasts of concrete evidence which is too impossible to deny. But how he pluck his guitar and sing a tune.He writes his own song, too.I particularly like that song he composed: DEO- a song about God, which makes my mother cry everytime she heard it sang. The music was almost perfect [for me, at least]. Once he was featured in Kuya Germs' program along with a sister whose close-up face was taken from all angle and viewed on national TV. Nanay was so proud, I guess, judging from her incessant calls on the "kapitbahay" to please turn their tube on, since her 'anak' were there singing .... Goodness! I had a hard time nudging her to keep still....I was a bit uneasy at her actions.But I must admit, I was happy, too happy, that is, to see R's and B's faces flashed right there before our very eyes! Then there is Kuya Boy. He was the eldest, a palikero, a playboy through and through.A friend once joked: "Mananalo yan, kapag tumakbong senador. Sa lahat ba nmn ng sulok ng 'Pinas, may anak." Quite true. Some of his kids, I have met, others I have no idea... He, too, can play the guitar, & the accordion so well he was always the center of attraction in parties. Maybe becoz he was "guwapo" or becoz he was known in the neighborhood as the Valedictorian and the Boy Mayor those years..... Of course, he can carry a tune.It was he, who encouraged me to sing...as I refused oftentimes to sing alone.He told me :"Maganda namn ang boses mo,huwag kang mahiya..." something which made me go to center stage then and belt out a tune I liked most. Then there's Ida. My! she who can make her voice adapt to different genre.. Great voice, indeed, despite her asthma, she can wow 'em all, especially Nanay. Her gift to my mother one Christmas? Her own recording: done in Tapes [uso noon!] with her pix and her husband's at its jacket. Great idea, huh? Then there's Nonie, who sang like Anthony Castelo: soft, caressing voice. Nanay had tapes of AC before and he listened to them. Anthony was Nanay's fave then. Nonie dubbed his voice with minus one or so and he came up with a superb recording.He likewise made a gift of his own "recordings" to Nanay .Alas! I had none to boast of..... Almost all played musical instruments:piano, accordion, guitar... Tatay rules over the Harmonica department. Just let him listen and he can get the tune. The neighbors were always delighted to hear him play "Bayang Magiliw" perfectly. For a foreigner living in MManila, he was the one who played the National Anthem as opening number in any Barangay assembly! Can they beat that? No one came up next to him. Now they simply sing. MUSIC played an important way to send messages even to sibling wars which prevailed some of the time... One who want to say something would start with some tunes, and the rest would follow suit. It eased the gap and made us all laugh as we sing tunes close to our hearts. Songs ease the pain and make us think of what is in our hearts. WANNA SING A SONG WITH ME? ...........I'D LOVE THAT!