First Post
Music Blog #1
1-5-2020
This is the inaugural installment of the mighty XXXX (now Note Musings) music blog. There are three goal I have in mind as I am starting this:
- Talk about music things that come across my field of view.
- Talk about kids and music and musical learning.
- Highlighting music that has caught my ear.
Now, that is about as general as one can get. So, in other words, what I want to talk about is…um,well…if a thing can in some way be described with or vaguely connected to musical notation I want to be able to talk about it.
And, now for the disclaimers side track. To start with, I have no doubt there are other blogs out there, and have been so for what is also no doubt quite some time, that specialize and cover the same ground as I. That’s okay. This is just a bit of fun. Second, I know very darn (oooo…strong language) little about music theory. I did take a music history class in college. The only things I remember was a big, expensive book and a professor who wanted to reinforce that if you hadn’t started seriously learning violin in the womb you were never going to be a great violinist. I know that there are notes, and chords, and scales and whatnot. But, the actual fitting them all together in a way that would make Bach slightly less grumpy on a Saturday afternoon is beyond my ken. That’s okay, this is all a bit of fun. Maybe I’ll learn something along the way. Finally, I know next to nothing about blogging, social media, internet content creation, and, you know, other cool parts of the modern age. I mean, I know, and have known, that the internet is there and what people can do with it. I have just never gotten around to doing it myself. For instance, right now as I am typing this, I have no idea if there is a smooth way to make this all happen. Does one get a web domain? Is there specialized blogging software? How do I add pictures? If I can add pictures, is a photo of a cat walking on a piano just cliché as we head into the 2020’s? Can you make money doing this (always worth checking)? What font do I use? How long should a blog post be? How often should I blog? Oh, for goodness gracious me, my don’t knows are legion. But, this is all just a bit of fun and figuring that stuff out along the way adds another layer of fun.
Okay, so with that in mind, where to start…
Music.
Muuuuusssic…
(This all seemed like a good idea yesterday.)
Music.
Well, let’s see. For me music is experienced on a number of levels: the intellectual, the emotional, the visceral, the humorous. These could probably all be described and analyzed to book lengths. But, right now, I feel like I should maybe say something about what launched this blog idea.
Yesterday was the last Saturday of winter break for my kids. Two of them. Boy. Girl. Late teen. Early teen. We were at a local guitar store. My son has played guitar for a couple of years. My daughter plays piano and has recently started learning electric bass. Cool all around.
I was walking around letting them fiddle with this instrument and that guitar peddle and look dad an acoustic bass guitar. As I watched them I was struck with how just happy I was watching them experience music in their own ways. And how awesome it was that they were the kind of people who were taking something they loved and making it their own.
And maybe that is the starting spot. I believe that music in some basic, deeply ingrained way resonates with us as humans. It looks like music has been part of the human experience for almost as long as we have been human (which is something I hope to get to writing about at some point). In the modern Western World, we are surrounded by it. Coming out of the Holiday Season, I am sure we all know what I mean. One of the amazing things about music is that it is relatively easy to take it from the passive consumption level, to active listening, to personal creation. For goodness sake, if you can whistle you can create music, however transitory. If you can’t whistle, you can clap. Hey presto, rhythm. And it is yours. Even if you are not creating something original you can make music personal in a way that, say, a TV show cannot easily be.
At some point my son was standing there trying a ridiculously expensive guitar plugged into an amp that if they turned it up to 10 could probably be heard several states away. He started strumming chords from several songs he knew. And just like that, he has a connection to those songs that someone who just let it drift through their ears mid traffic jam doesn’t have. (Note here: let me just say that I have nothing, absolutely nothing, against letting tunes drift around you. I believe there may be a very good reason to let that happen at times…maybe that will be part of a post at some point.)
We walked out of the store with a few new or upgraded items. The kids came home and played music. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
Okay, so I don’t think I have made any points very clear. I’m not sure they are very clear in my head just yet. But this is all just a bit of fun…and I am just starting. So, maybe let me just throw out a few easily worded theses that were floating around as I wrote this:
- Kids playing music is one of the best things in the world. They are, in the moment, taking something that is so easy to consume without thought, and making it a little part of themselves.
- When a person listens, plays, and/or thinks about music they are in some fundamental way connecting a part of themselves to something that is at the base of being human.
- There is joy in music.
I started off a day ago with this vague notion of writing a little about music. It was inspired by seeing my kids mess around with instruments. Seeing them find that joy of music for themselves and on their own terms is really, and no matter how sappy it sounds, one of the best things in life. I hope others have this same experience.
And, have a little fun.
Post Script.
I have been thinking over the last few paragraphs of a way to end this bloggy thing on a regular basis. It seems fitting I should maybe share what has been playing while I typed. As it happens, this was written in two sessions. For the first, longer, of these writing sessions I was listening to songs from a playlist on my iphone on random. And, I totally failed to note what was being played. So, here is a short list of some of the albums that I vaguely remember having been played:
Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma – Bach Trios
Devin Townsend – Empath
Within Temptation – Mother Earth
Weather Report – Legendary Live Tapes: 1978-1981
Chick Corea and Bela Fleck – Enchanted
The Cranberries – No Need to Argue
Nina Simone – The Essential Nina Simone
Travis Larson Band – Shift Happens and Anicca
Session 2 is easier, since its, well, now. Side 2 of Bryan Beller’s – Scenes From The Flood
Picture: Still Life with a Bottle of Rum – Pablo Picasso – It reminded me of a guitar with words flowing out of it…I didn’t get rum so much.
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