How Does Music Impact Us?

“Okay, look at the key signature. This piece is in 4/4. About half way through the song it changes to allegro. Firsts, you have the melody for the most part, but it bounces between you and the violas at measure 39. Make sure you listen across your sections to blend the quality! Pay attention to the dynamics!!! During measures 57-59, watch how it goes from pianissimo to fortissimo. Please, don’t ignore that. Okay, let’s clap the rhythm. STOP! Count your rests! Don’t be timid, it’s better to be loud and wrong than not to be heard at all. Any questions? Okay, let’s play …1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.” This was my instructor before every sight reading piece we had to perform.

Every year, every section of our music program had to attend “Festival”. So for months every choir, every band, and orchestra spent countless hours rehearsing 3 pieces, a warm-up and two judged pieces. After our performances, we couldn’t even take a breath of relief because we had to go to sight reading. Sight-readings, I remember how much I dreaded them, but they had to be done. We have a few minutes to go over a piece that we have never seen before and then, play it for a judge. My experiences have always ended well, as we were awarded high scores and had to repeat it all but this time at a higher level.

My music education started in 2^nd grade with the basic recorder and singing classes. In 5^th grade I decided to start playing the violin. I was terrible at it, I remember the instructor stopping the class to tell me that I was holding the instrument completely wrong. But, somehow throughout the years I managed to learn how to play the piano, violin, viola, and a little bit of the baritone.

courtesy of flickr

Through all these years of music, I have learned things that I could not have learned from anything else. Being in music allows you to not only grow as a person, it allows you to learn how to support others, mentor others, how to express yourself, how to analyze … the list goes on and on. On the other hand, in other subjects students focus on their individual grades and goals, there’s not much time to learn how to work together. In the real world, you have to work together. In ensembles you HAVE to work together. You have to listen in order to match tone, quality, and style. It’s something like being on a sports team. It’s an experience that is irreplaceable.

Now, many people argue that music is a hobby or that you have a very slim chance to make any money from it, but who are they to say that? How can someone attempt to tell you what is valuable to yourself? Not to mention, music is universal and a multi-billion dollar industry. What’s truly more important, money or happiness? That’s a question that everyone has to answer for them themselves, whether you’re interested in arts or not. I believe that is a major issue in our society as more and more people are picking money over happiness which leaves a lasting impact on them in many negative ways.

Let’s say you aren’t an arts fanatic but you listen to music because you feel it helps with expression or you just find it enjoyable. You know what music does for the listeners, now imagine what it does for the performers. Not to say that music is the only thing that brings people happiness, it does impact every part of our lives. Can you imagine a day without music? No, so how can you expect to reduce funding? From grocery stores to elevators, there’s almost always music being played. There’s no escaping it. It’s something that stays in your life forever.

Follow my posts as I speak about the “right” ways to defend music education, the impact it has on the world around us, and more of my stories.

Thanks for reading J