Submit to the power
Music can transport you to a place where you can lose yourself for a while, writes
Music is inspirational. Once I start listening, almost regardless of the genre, I find it difficult to extract myself from the spell it casts. I get involved. As I become absorbed in its genius, music brings out emotions and thought processes otherwise neglected in my life. The world isn’t getting any less complicated or more universally prosperous, and societies are having to deal with increased anxiety and — I’m convinced — consequential ill health.
Give yourself a break.
I find myself reflecting on whether humanity has peaked, whether our best is behind us. We’ve had a great life. I might be wrong though, given the huge advances in technology, healthcare and knowledge access over the past century.
Unfortunately, although we can preserve life for longer, it isn’t all good. As we immerse ourselves more in online real-time information (and imposed misinformation or lies and fantasies), reality has taken a back seat.
Enter music.
Music is a choice not an imposition, but to really appreciate it requires recognition and, ultimately, submission.
I don’t pretend to understand the left- and right-brain arguments (left is logical, right is creative). I’m on the side that thinks our brains can handle either one or both, depending on the circumstances and, dare I say it, our mood at the time.
Maybe environmental influences, as well as judgment and conditioning (maths vs art), have something to do with it. I think we should be naturally integrated rather than boxed. You’re likely to surprise yourself if you let go of the definition they slotted you into at school and play both sides, so to speak.
Perhaps the most intriguing book I’ve read (or tried to read) is Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, which can broadly be described as an examination of things connected or not, or as it states on the cover: “A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines …”, whatever that means. Arguments for integral thinking. Whatever.
I’ve witnessed examples of adults who have strayed significantly from their early classifications to explore “the other side” and have not only been successful but also fulfilled.
Back to music.
I’ve always held out that genius is identified in originality. No matter how well you do in matric maths or on your SAT scores, or how quickly you can learn to play the piano, is evidence of no more than a sliver of our composite brain power.
Original thought, however, is difficult to define or sometimes recognise — we never know the building blocks of the discovery.
But I can see it in music.
Listen to an impromptu guitar solo which may wander off the beaten track of the song yet somehow fits in perfectly and you’ll get my meaning.
Whatever the genre, whoever your favourite musician or band or rock star, there’s something about music that crosses so many of the things that divide us.
The composition of music (for full orchestra execution) once distilled into the score of the work it encompasses, perhaps not intentionally but certainly on diagnosis, contains many more simultaneous trains of logic than the most complex mathematical problems for which we have proudly found solutions.
Our brain doesn’t deconstruct it like this (at least, mine doesn’t). Instead it is capable of absorbing, connecting, enjoying and enthusiastically repeating the stuff we get from music.
You don’t have to learn about it to love music.
We can all dance. Especially if no-one is watching and if you’re not trying too hard. Some people’s dancing is more acceptable but we all can dance, and we should. Don’t be put off by people who think they know better.
I used to envy musical talent and accomplishment. I used to wish I had it. I still do, a bit, but admiration is fast filling that space now. Let it wash over you.
Art is the same. It’s not about the value or importance of the work (I quickly forget artists’ names) but about whether I like what I’m looking at and expect that likeness to grow the more I look.
We spend too much time in the company of others — or surrounded by objects — in places not of our choosing. Functional places, such as an office with structures and processes, are necessary to fulfil a purpose often beyond just the individual.
That all has its place, but never miss the opportunity to indulge in personal past-times (like listening to music, alone) which serve no higher purpose than the greatest purpose of all — to let your mind wander freely, exploring who you are and allowing yourself to love that person.
Go on, sing out loud, even if you don’t think you can.