Music - The Arts - Life 101 lecture

Ahh the magic of sound. Who can say if we would really be living if we didn't have music. The combination of melody, harmony, and rhythm which lifts up the spirit, strengthens the body, and enlightens the mind. Music is a motivator. It washes into the mind, pumps up the synapses, pounds with the heart, reverberates through the muscles, and inspires the bones. Music is not a teacher as Books are nor is it the abstract expression of paintings. Music is Poetry in Motion. Truly.

Have you ever been to a sporting event? Just recently I saw the Philadelphia Phillies take the 2008 NLEast Championship. And while they didn't play songs I was used to from a lifetime of going to Orioles games, I did see the crowd singing and dancing along with what were regular replays of songs for the stadium. Of course it was a little disappointing to go to a sporting event and not hear "Thank God I'm A Country Boy," but I was very entertained to see legions of middle aged women baring it all to belt out along with Pink singing "So What." There is nothing much like a stadium all cheering together in song. Everyone gets up, gets to moving, gets to singing, and everyone in engaged in harmony, no matter if they are Nationals fans or not.

But on a smaller level, never have I found such ease of mind, or completion of thought when I was sitting around thinking without soundtrack. There is something about music which makes everything flow. A babbling brook of movement that allows mind and body to sway together, in the same direction. Music is a force that inspires people to keep moving forward, to keep going on. And while some songs are the saddest memories of broken heart syndrome, others make us fits our hands in determination. Music is what drives people. Why do you think all vehicles have radios?

I have been called and addict, a freak, and a dork because of my love for music. For most of my youth I was behind headphones. True I didn't listen to very many different things (downloading wasn't popular yet), but I did listen to what I had until most of it was unplayable. I actually lost and broke close to a thousand dollars worth of electronic music equipment. Every year for Christmas I got a new portable CD player. I had those giant "don't bother me" headphones with surround sound so full it could block out all other sound. Also, it kept me fro sharing my music with anyone else. I listened mostly to Japanese Pop and Type O Negative. And while bands like Korn and Slipknot were popular for my social group, I would pop in Cheap Trick or the Ramones. Marilyn Manson made it into my cd player once, mostly because the music video for one of his songs had Billie Zane in the Video. I played rhythm video games, did stomp between classes, and tooled around with the piano and guitar in my spare time. Music was natural, as natural as drawing was. But playing or listening was never more than a hobby I indulged in. I was often at the local metal club watching the son of the pastor of my Methodist Church play drums for the best local band to come out of my High School. I think I still have their tape around here somewhere. But, to everyone, my behavior was unacceptable. I was being internal, brooding, and anti-social. I suppose using music as a force to keep me sane and focused while the rest of my generation was being medicated to keep that focus was just as bad as being ADD. The perception of my society directed at me for keeping myself in order well enough to not have to take some chemical enforcement, resulted in multiple doctors visits to be put on something. I suppose the 90s were a time where anyone was not well enough to live their own lives. But I made it through without taking anything that was prescribed to me by anyone other than myself. Music was my Drug. It kept my emotions in order, it kept me from having to meddle in the affairs of people who were either getting high or coming down. And while everyone was crying about simple changes in physicality of puberty, I was able to expand my mind with the smooth sounds of the musical abilities of others to inspire me to do so. Music kept me leveled, clear headed, and always ready to learn. I would put on my headphones and listen for the 8 minutes of free time I had between classes. It was magnificent to have sound and beat flowing through my being when people spat on me, as i picked out remnants of food out of my hair, or while I was punched or kicked. I always walked in time and with some swagger. People mostly left me alone, which was good, since I preferred that the most. I had a whole universe inside of me to explore. I really had little interest in other people, except when teenage hormones flared up and shoved me into the faces of other young people. but this is turning into a whole 'nother story.

Music is the combination of some sort of attractive sound or sounds that come together in melody or harmony. It often creates a mental state which is progressive. it tunes into our most primal of sectors and opens them up to let our humanity come out and play. Workers can often be seen humming, whistling, or singing through their chores. What better way to make it through tough times than to keep yourself upbeat?

Music comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be as straightforward as a bird's song or as convoluted as an acid trip. Anthems empower us, ballads assure us, pop gets us happy, while dance pulls us around the dark of the night. The collision of various sounds is a competent friend, an entertainment machine, or a great bedfellow. Even if people turn you away, there is someone calling into your ears assuring you you aren't alone. Someone, somewhere has written your same situation out. It is teamed with voice and guitar and piano and it creeps below the barriers kept up to keep you safe and pure, and just massages your ego until you can relax. This is why they say that music tames the wild beast.

But that aside, I think what makes music magical, is its ability to speak to so many people on so many different levels. One person can respond to one set of lyrics the same way the guitar part burrows its way into someone's soul. While this means this to me, this means that to you. And as you are a fan, and I am a fan, we are different. Because while some music might pacify you, it has the ability to agitates me. While two people are at the same show, one member of the audience might be bounding around like a cat on crack while the other is sinking to the floor in tears. But, and here's the amazing part, both are moved.

I recently went to see a band called Ratdog. They are a Jamband lead by one of the remaining members of the Grateful Dead. Well let me tell you, I have never experienced music like that before. The crowd was cold and wet (due to the imposition of the crashing economy on our personal lives). The Band started, and it was good. I can't tell you what it was, the pink lights, the play of batting a balloon around, the free sharing of joints, or the free love, but the band got into a grove on the second song and the power of the people, the power of the music, sent a flame, bred of my spiritual center blazing throughout me. I started hooting and grooving, and the whole of the auditorium did the same. The lady behind me called out "This is a Show NOW!" and she was right. Everyone was moving, cheering, singing along, clapping, and just letting themselves out while letting the music in. It was brilliant. I think for the first time I started to understand what the use of music really is. it is how the deeper part of ourselves communicate with one another. It is beauty, personified and expressed in sound and vision. The music became disassembled, messy, crowded, overlapping, and dissonant. While it had become so very incomprehensible, I was sinking into myself and truths were popping into my consciousness. It was like this fireworks display of epiphany. And while I was understanding myself without trying, I felt so alive, so, worthy. I was stuck in a place in my heart that kept telling me, "wow, this feeling is what life should be more like."

I am still riding that open-ended high.

It was magnificent, wonderful, and explosive. I think that is what it is all about. It was Music that connected me to myself and everyone else in the whole world at one time in Sharing, Understanding, and Acceptance.

Homework:
Listen to music. Really, Listen to your music. Let it flow into you, float around you, and engulf you in its ability to effect you. If you want to learn how to see how music moves you, make mental notes while the soars of melody lift your heart, how the deep bass or drums gets you bobbing your head, or listen to how the lyrics paint a picture for you. Close your eyes, sit back, and enjoy the ride.