About three months ago, I suffered a dissection that basically cut off my communication skills. And coming off a job that required me to speak English, well let’s just say that said dissection wasn’t well thought of as far as schedule is concerned. It basically rewrote my brain in that I forgot how to speak the language properly.

I was there, but I forgot the words. It’s like singing a song that you thought you knew but you didn’t. You know the melody so to speak, but the lyrics? Nada. It was awkward, humiliating and it was funny too now that I think of how I must have looked groping for words and the best I can come up with is “yeah!”

But I am recovering now. I’m thankful for work that doesn’t require me to be on the frontline, that if I have to speak, doesn’t require me to be so smooth-tongued. But that too is changing as the days go. I can communicate more freely and find a word or two to use that’s different from my usual oeuvre of plain spoken language. The trick is to be expressive!

Talking about songs earlier, I bought a book a few days ago to help me practice my speaking. The songbook in question is called The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook (Hal Leonard) and in it “all 194 songs written and sung by The Beatles, specially arranged by Rikky Rooksby from the actual recordings, in the original keys.” This is brilliant! Because I have stopped playing guitar entirely these past three-and-half months and this would be a perfect time to go back to re-learning all these Beatles tunes again.

I mean, besides re-learning the guitar, it’s revisiting the music and the lyrics of this old favorite. I remember I had the same Beatles songbook, the red one from Jingle publications that had seen many ‘inuman’ sessions back in the day. Come to think of it, it’s been decades since I had that songbook. It’s high time to bring in a new one so I can pluck out “Blackbird” and “Here Come The Sun” once more and learn some new ones as well.

Also, I’ve been listening to the current streaming outlets for new tunes. And currently new music from the likes of Fitz Shioda, with his alt-pop flavored “SURF,” Kent Villarba’s jazz-cum-soul rag on “Pinto,” and Sean Ilada’s smooth singing on “gus2” is taking off well and landing so well on my playlist (The Pinoy Pop Playlist 2026).

There’s a rush of local releases this week: There’s the sweet sounding pop of Leona Lane with “Alas Dose.” There’s the outlandish dance beats and drone of Dandbroom, a Dumaguete quartet with “Sige Lang.”

On the indie-front, there’s “LASING!” by wax.wav for a bit of hardrock and bluesy guitars. “Taympers” brings back 90’s alt-pop with its synth sound and singer Pikoy sounds like she’s having fun while doing it. Rounding off our newbies is Kiel on his “Sa’n Ba Ako Nagkulang” bringing a hint of mellow and rise with his singing complete with a guitar solo!

Finishing this week’s playlist add-ons is Kenaniah with a familiar sounding “Awit Ng Pag-ibig,” followed by the Beatle-esque vibe of “It’s Not The Same As It Used To Be” by Hey June. Ace Banzuelo is back to his old tricks bringing love songs with an alt-pop touch on “Sakin.” And finally, Spongecola hits anew with a tuneful chorus in “Hindi Ko Alam” and KZ Tandingan wraps it all up with regional flavor with “Bugsay.”

Listening to music is therapy.