Thursday, November 26, 2009

Manifesto.

This is a pretty selfish post, people. I'm writing it so that I can come back and read it when I question why I'm in the whole music business thing. But hopefully it will also help some of you along your journey of lost and again rekindled passions..

Those goosebumps that you get when the sopranos nail a sustained high A flat above the choir- that's why music is important. The look you share with someone great when the orchestra swells and fades again in your headphones- that's why music is invaluable. That surge of emotion that has nothing to do with how your day is going but everything to do with the word painting in a Lauridsen piece- that's why music is essential.

I'm no professor; I don't even have my bachelor's yet, but I can tell you this: there's something astounding at work when sound waves mesh and blend together at pre-determined frequencies. Heck, I can't tell you what exactly that something is, but I can surely say that human beings are inherently predisposed to its effects. Why else would music be everywhere- and I mean absolutely everywhere- in our cars when we're driving, in the locker rooms before a football game, our ringtones,... unless it was important to us as a society?

And why is it important to us? I'm not sure about you, but for me listening to (good) music provides confirmation that there are bigger things out there than myself and my immediate environment- that other people have felt the same things we have. And that makes me feel way cool, because we all innately want to feel connected to people and our world, right? We want to feel like we belong, and music is one of the greatest amalgamators there is. I think lots of people feel this way about music too, therefore the whole societal significance thing.

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So I've talked about listening to music, which is all good and fine, but I could listen to my heart's content without spending 18 hours a day in the music building. Creating music is a whole 'nother level, man. It intensifies that sense of belonging, not to mention the feeling of accomplishment we musicians get when we help other people feel the way I've been discussing. It gets tough, of course, because in order to be a true musician, you have to practice, study, and be dedicated enough to keep going.

Oh! And here's yet another musical echelon- the path I'm traveling and endlessly excited about- teaching music. I mean wow. Do I really need to say more about how awesome it is (or will be, in my case) to pass on that capacity to feel something greater, something albeit unexplainable but nonetheless absolutely powerful?

Like I said, it gets difficult to stay enthusiastic sometimes. It's all too easy to undervalue the things that we're exposed to on a constant basis. It's also very discouraging when a piece or technical aspect isn't coming along as quickly as it would if we had it our way. Yes, it's important to work on these things, because how else can we learn to make better music? But it's also imperative to keep a wider perspective and to remember things like that collective sigh in the audience at the end of a particularly poignant piece. Because when I think about it- really mull it over- there's no nobler calling than music, because there's nothing more important than other people.

1 comment:

  1. "there's nothing more important than other people." People are the reason I'm here, people are the reason that I do what I do every day. People influence your life whether you see it or not and being a teacher is a very effective way to touch students' lives.

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