As I was thinking about all those points, I started thinking about the music I enjoy listening to, and why. There is just something about listening to a song that really hits home. A song where the lyrics seem like they are speaking directly to you. The way a song comes together, and creates the mood that you are feeling, not only with their lyrics, but the tempo, and the tone. It is just a feel that you get, and for me, it is a feeling that maybe this person knows what I am going through. It makes you think that maybe you are not alone, and that someone else has made it through a situation similar to yours. I personally think that the reason people are so attached to say a band, or particular artist is because they truly believe that the artist understands them, and writes music that fits their particular emotional state. I don't want to make a blanket statment, stating that this is why everyone likes a certain type of music over another, I just know this is how it works for me.
I personally have music I listen to for every possible situation I go through. For working out, I like fast, chest thumping metal. When I am down, I listen to slow guitar or piano music, when I just feel good I like a slow steady rock beat. It has been a constant search for me to fill the voids in my emotional states with music that talks directly to me about the situation. People that really know me, know that I go through emotional changes constantly, sometimes as frequently as hourly. Thank god for Itunes, and an endless set of playlists that fit my mood.
To take this all a step further, could I possibly appreciate music even more than by creating it myself? I picked up the bass with the intention of learning it well enough to teach my son to play. As I practiced, and started listening closer to songs I liked, and even songs I really didn't think I cared for, I started appreciating music at a level that I didn't even know existed. Just listening close to each instrument (I include vocals in there), and appreciating how it all just fits together, and how emotionally invested it seems each particular band member is in what they are producing. It all just makes me very envious. I want to produce something that speaks to my son, my friends, my family, my loved ones, and tells them how I feel about them, and about myself. I write songs that convey how I feel about everything. Whether it is about an old relationship, a new relationship, a personal tragedy, or maybe how I feel about something in society. All of those things I want to discuss with others, I want to try and do it through music.
Although I hear that I am an extrovert, I have a image of my self that is very introverted, and for me I find it very difficult to discuss certain things, painful things, face to face with people. Put me behind a computer, and I will say just about anything, and I have found that I feel the same way through music. Maybe it is a character flaw on my part, but through abstraction I am able to say all the things I want to say to everyone without really having to face the situation directly. I love making CD's for people that I care about telling them how I feel. The problem is, I am using other peoples words and music to express how I feel. I thought to myself, what if I could, in my own words tell them how I feel through my own music. I just feel that would be more of a lasting impression, and would hopefully leave less doubt as to what I am trying to say. Granted, some of the songs we love, are songs that we interpret the way we want. We decide what the lyrics mean, and we decide what emotional state the music puts us into. Yet, the person sitting next to you, listening to the same song, can interpret that song completely different.
I guess that is why I love music, and that is what music really means to me.
On top of it all, I don't care if I ever see a nickel from playing music. That doesn't matter at all. The investment I have in lessons, instruments, learning materials, and time are all well worth it. I would love to one day perform for people, and get my personal message out there, but it isn't my ultimate goal. My real goal is to get my friends and family that love and play music like I do into a studio, work on music together that tells a story about our lives together. I would like my brother and I to create music about growing up together, or for me and another friend create a song about something that happened when we were together, and then have Liam and I write something together. That is my ultimate goal with music.
No comments:
Post a Comment