All throughout my life, music has been there. My mom loved singing, so naturally she sang to her children a lot while we grew up (she still hasn’t stopped (one of the qualities I love most about my mother)). Over the years, my love for and involvement in music has been in fluxx. Most of my musical experience comes from singing church hymns (my favorite reason for attending church), playing an instrument in a school band (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, and bass clarinet, if you were wondering), singing in a concert choir ( baritone part), singing and dancing in a show choir (loads of fun, I highly recommend being in one if you have the chance), and being involved in musical theater (both in the pit orchestra and on stage). I do have a small amount of “formal” education, with regards to music in the professional field (I started out my college experiences, with a focus on becoming a music educator). This “formal” education actually turned me away from music for the longest time, most of this was due to the mental and emotional health issues I was also dealing with. Some of it, however, was due to the fact that all I did was music, so I got burnt out on it. As I slowed down on the non-stop musicality, my enjoyment of music returned; for I no longer viewed it as a chore but as a hobby. As this enjoyment returned, I realized that music was what anchored me to my life, so it was vital to my survival.
I believe that music plays a vital part in someone’s life: The music we listen to, the music we create, and the music we identify with all make up a part of who we are as human beings. Music has been around for ages. In an article published by BBC entitled “Did early humans, or even animals, invent music?” (link to it here), the author discusses how the earliest known man-made instruments are estimated at 40,000 years old. That’s crazy! However, it is theorized by many that music has been around for much longer than that. Some anthropologists even think that music might have been used as a form of communication in the early stages of societal evolution. We may have used it as a way to convey our emotions to larger groups of people, which makes sense when you consider how much of an effect the music you listen to can have on your emotions. “Happy,” by Pharrell Williams, might make you want to get up and dance, while “Someone Like You,” by Adele, might put you in more of a somber mood. Music is a more powerful force than we give it credit for.
During my first semester attending college, I was enrolled in a course named “The Power of Song.” This was my first year seminar course, a college course designed to try and introduce you to upper level courses via various writing techniques. This course also doubled as my orientation group, and it was taught by my advisor while at that educational institution (this is also the place that Josie and I met!). When selecting the class, I was excited about it, because I believed that we would discuss the physiological and psychological effects that music has on people. Though we never actually discussed that topic (which left me a little disappointed with the course), we did discuss the uses of music in regard to the development of society and world cultures. We discussed how songs were structured, and actually wrote and performed our own songs as an assignment. We talked about the importance of songs during the civil rights movement, and their effects on the outcome. We also spent a day each week sitting in a circle, singing, sharing music, and teaching songs to one another. Although it wasn’t what I believed we would talk about, the course really opened my eyes to how important music is to society.
As a society, music helps us evoke emotion to the masses. It helps us find commonality with our fellow human beings. Music isn’t confined to a specific race, gender, language, religious affiliation, or lifestyle. Music exists everywhere. Without it, we would be intelligent beings wandering around on a planet filled with the quiet loneliness of our own divisions. Or would we? Would music exist without human beings? I think that if we had never existed as a species, music would still exist. The most common definition of music used is “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color,” (definition #1). The definition I much prefer, however, is “any sweet, pleasing, or harmonious sounds or sound,” (definition #6). I prefer this one because when I think of music, I think of things other than our traditional views on music. I think of the sounds of songbirds, chirping in the trees. I think of the soothing sound of wind blowing through the leaves on a windy day. I think of the quiet pitter-patter of rain during an April shower. I think of water lapping on the shore of a lake, ocean, or river. I think of the bellowing calls of whales under the waves. I think of the crashing of thunder during a storm. I think of the deafening roar of water in a waterfall. I think of the crackle of a fire. I think of these sounds in our world as the music nature provides us with every day. Music is everywhere, you just need to know where to look, or rather where to listen.
Always Listening for the Music,
Drew
Комментарии