Music

I love music. Listening to and performing music is one of the best experiences one can have in this life.  Sometimes I forget how much I love music, and my life feels rather dreary. It's hard to participate in even a simple church choir when the baby's needs come right at the same time as choir practice. Other times I'm so busy taking care of domestic needs that I forget to listen to music. But every time I start singing again or turn on the radio, it's like reconnecting with an old friend, and I remember how much I like and need uplifting music in my life.

My musical career started with nursery songs my mother sang to me and hymns in church. From there I learned piano, then delved into playing with a band on a saxophone, then branched out into the choral area of music. I have played the sax in marching band, orchestra pits, and regular concert bands. I have sung in high school and college choirs, church choirs, a special live church pageant and I even had my own barbershop quartet for a while.

I'm not a solo artist; I might have the pipes for it, but I enjoy making music with others. It's the same feeling that players on any sports team feel when everyone is playing their best and achievements are made that can only happen as a cohesive unit. It's especially important for me to sing in groups now that I'm home alone most of the day. There are social benefits as well as spiritual from singing uplifting music. I also like to be a leader in my section; I can't exactly lead anyone when I'm home alone.

Creating music is an amazing process and a very interesting art medium. Music isn't like a painting; once a song is done, it's over. One note follows another, each new note quickly dying out, fading from existence forever. A painting, once completed, can still be examined for a lifetime afterward. Fortunately music can be written down, steps to dances can be recorded, but it is in the moment of performance that music comes to life.

I love good music, but it is also a great example of how one can have too much of a good thing. I find that sometimes I just need to be somewhere quiet for a while, so I can sit and think about my day or my life. If there is noise of some sort constantly going on, even sacred church hymns, you can't refocus. So remember to turn everything off once in a while and just be still!

*Steps down off of soap box* My mother in law made me realize a short while ago that I'm actually quite picky about the type of music I enjoy. I don't like rap (which isn't really music, but so many people think otherwise that I have to mention it as a type of music I dislike), most hip-hop, anything "screamer" or heavy metal. I also dislike classic rock and country, but that's more of a sound style preference. Some country songs have quite nice lyrics, and I know that classic rock paved the way for my favorite artists. The music I do like includes bubble-gum punk, alternative, indie and some pop, but not everything within those genres. I'm still picky about the particular artist, down to the album or song. 

I think this pickiness is because I am so sensitive to how music makes me feel. I remember working on the school yearbook in high school one afternoon, and I was getting really agitated and upset, angry even, for no apparent reason. I finally figured it out: someone was playing Linkin Park on their computer. That music was making me feel angry, manipulating my emotions! I did not like that feeling at all. So most of my music is selected to make me feel happy.

How many teenagers or young adults can say they pay attention to how their music makes them feel? I think it is a very important skill to develop and then get rid of the music that makes us less human. Just because a song is "high-quality," as in it was made using the best recording equipment, the best artists sang the most skillfully, does not mean the lyrics are any good. Our spirits are sensitive to those subliminal (or not so subliminal) messages. I can't help but wonder what would happen if the people living in the ghettos were cut off from their violent music and could only listen to songs with uplifting messages and clean language. I think there would be a great improvement in those areas.

More localized, what would happen to the slum parts of ourselves if we only listened to good music? (Good meaning positive lyrics, not just "high quality" sound or well-written melodies.) I think we would become better individuals. 

It irritates me that this question is only meaningful to those who want to improve. People who think this life is all we have see no problems with settling and sliding a little in the morality department. And yes, music really does have this much power. So rock on, but not all the time, and be willing to give up some of your music if it's not making you a better person.