Can you hear the music?

Can you hear the music?  Are you listening to the music?  Are you paying attention to the music?  What music am I talking about, the music your child is listening to.

You can find out a lot about an individual by discovering the music he/she listens to.  Music has the ability to speak to and for others.  As a writer of music, I frequently pour thoughts and emotions into my music that I have no other way of expressing (safely).  I have seen my music both speak to and for others.  When I see another person brought to tears (literally) by what the music is expressing, I know this person has been reach and touched, a piece of me has been understood and accepted and vice versa.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time discovering many genres of music and each one spoke for me and to me in different ways.  It was interesting that my parents, whose music interests were for the most part shaped in the late 1930’s through the early 1950’s (basically pre-rock,) were equally caught off guard by my interest in rock and roll and classical music at the same time.  I would come home from the music store with a top 10 rock and roll 45rpm record (the small one with the big hole) in one hand and Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops playing the William Tell Overture on  a 33 1/3 album (the big one with the small hole) in the other.  I never did get the impression that they grasped how the music was speaking to me and for me.  Now, when I sit at my piano, write some music and then orchestrate it, I am speaking for myself, the music has roots and meaning, it’s not just dots attached to vertical lines, placed on horizontal lines.  If you listen carefully enough you will have a glimpse into me that no other opportunity will provide.

It is the same with the music that you and I listen to, and it is the same with the music that our kids listen to.  Listen carefully and you will get a glimpse inside.  Which of us, when listening to a piece of music hasn’t been whisked to a time and place in the past?  Which of us, when listening to a piece of music hasn’t experienced emotions long forgotten or buried deep within us?  Which of us, when listening to a piece of music, hasn’t experienced new emotions; emotions so attractive that we can’t help but explore them?  Which of us, when watching a movie, hasn’t been impacted by the musical score, which sets up the chase, the laugh, the heartbreak, the jump out of your skin surprise?  Music speaks, moves, alters, encourages, soothes, tells stories and so much more.

Can you hear the music?  Are you listening to the music?  Are you paying attention to the music?  What music am I talking about?  The music your child is listening to.  If you aren’t you may be missing moments to laugh with or encourage your child.  You may be missing the moment that he/she is trying to sort through those feelings about boys and girls.  You may be missing that your child is angry and depressed.  It’s right there before your eyes, if you only take the time to listen.