Music is vast. There are only so many colors to paint with, but infinite soundscapes to create. Although visually there is much more than colors. I digress, but music is a very emotionally evocative thing. And the entertainment industry knows it. Chances are, the people who cry at the movies do so because of the soundtrack backing the emotional scene. Although not uncommon, it is certainly less likely, that the same people would cry simply reading the scene or the chapter it is based on.
Music has more benefits than just expression. A strong link has been established between playing a musical instrument and intelligence at a young age. This has been studied time and time again and believed to be true by most experts. But that is just icing on the cake. Even if it were not beneficial to the connection the left and right hemispheres of the brain it would be worth exploring. Music is a terrific way to express, communicate, and experiment.
Words can be misconstrued or misunderstood, the same scene can appear different from another vantage point, but music is a very consistent thing. Almost anyone can tell if a song is sad or one to dance to; it does not need to set itself up with plot and narrative. That simplicity gives it strength. Its ability to communicate, not through words representative of emotions but through sounds strongly connected to those emotions, is one that transcends language. A slow French song is slow to an American. There is probably not a soul that can hear normally who would say "Adagio for String" by Samuel Barber is not a tragic piece. Music, at its core, is a way to communicate, to interpret, and to create.
My personal experience with music has been a love and hate relationship. I hated it then, I love it now, yet I still hate what it is to many people. When I was young, my sister would blare her music through her stereo, and through the wall between our rooms. I was not terribly fond of her choice in music, and honestly, I still am not today (sorry Katie). She was fond of harsh rap music which my elementary-and-before ears could not appreciate the lyrical feats of. My mother listened to folksy music with women who sang in an elaborate fashion that was not appealing to me. My father listened to sports radio, and when he did not, he listened to whatever was on the most popular stations around the city. I grew up knowing few songs that I enjoyed.
Most of music was not worth listening to, I thought. With that mentality, but my parents unaware of it, I was enrolled in piano lessons. Dread would be the word for my feelings on those lessons. The teacher was kind enough, but the music was oh-so-boring and, oh, how I did not pick it up easily. The only solace I found was in a little midi program on the computer students did exercises on. The simple program allowed you to place notes of different lengths in sequence of your choice. I, and a few other students, would individually mess around and make midi songs, saving them if we liked them; I'm sure that some of the songs were just the pieces that the others were learning, but some were original, probably. I listened to them all and I made the most midi files of anyone. I had this idea that we were all in this little secret club and checking out each others' files, but no doubt, it was just me doing so and everyone else was just using a tool set out for their musical instruction.
But that alone wasn't enough to keep me there. Eventually, I weaseled my way out of lessons entirely before I went into middle school. I had gone on and on about getting the songs I made off her computer before I quit, and I think she did give me them but I never opened them off the disc and have since lost it throughout the years. So then came middle school, the time where music was something heard and not played, let alone written, by me. But I grew to know my own tastes better.
In high school, I began playing again. There were some modern pieces that I enjoyed so much I wanted to play them, and I had learned to read music in elementary school, so why not do so? It was frustratingly hard to learn a simple piece or two. Once I learned one however, I enjoyed playing it, and some people enjoyed hearing it.
I no longer had a program to play with, only a piano, but I did play with it all the same. New bizarre harmonies and chord progressions came forth from my hands and I enjoyed making those strange pieces thoroughly (though I will not leave you with one, thank me later). They were fun, but I was having trouble writing them down and figuring out the technicalities of the music I had made. I wanted to write them down in case I forgot a part of them. Only knowing how to read music was not enough to record it on paper or electronically in a midi.
So I took a class was offered at my high school called IB Music. Basically, it was a music theory, history, and appreciation class that spanned two years. There I learned of all sorts of jargon that would be meaningless to most: the mixolydian mode, free counterpoint and stretto, among others. It had become too technical and we began listening to street performers from Latin America and expected to comment intellectually on it, so I lost some of my interest in it. I only took the first year because an engineering class conflicted with it, regretfully.
That pretty much leads up to now. I have a knowledge of music that allows me to record what I make and interpret what I hear and see. I can learn by ear and by common notation. I still write piano pieces but they are less erratic. Music is something I find comfort in. It can be something fun or something expressive for me. It is an enjoyable hobby whether in the form of listening or playing music.
I strongly encourage anyone to try and take up music or music theory/appreciation. In my bias, I recommend the piano highly. However, I have been the child who was all but forced into lessons, and it was not good for my musical interest. Music should be pursued of one's own initiative rather than started by well meaning parents. Whether listening or playing, it is good to have some knowledge of music. It isn't necessary to know the date composed or any trivia-like knowledge about the composer to truly appreciate the music. Creating and learning about music is the best way to understand what is already out there. Many music teachers and students forget this, and that is why independent initiative is so important. Always remember, there's a reason it's called playing the instrument.
