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Why I Love Music

I love the joy of hearing new things unfold. I love exploring and discovering new depths in unexpected places. I love how in the diligence and focus of practise there is a clarity of mind awaiting, an uncovering of new ideas. I love music when you can hear a passion, a unique life-expression, a heart-beat, coming from the players and singers. I love the physical part of music: as our body warms up and we commit more fully to the process, the music gets better, and we become more honest.

I love the immediacy of music: It brings me fully into the present. I love its road-mapping possibilities: we’re here now, but we could be anywhere soon! I love the structures within music: there are cathedrals to build – though we are not limited by resource, but only taste. I love the unity of music: when the next section arrives and every person is committed, for a moment there is complete integrity of purpose – the members of the band or group are of one mind.

I love how music has the ability to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. I love that music can cause me to feel confusion, anger, outrage; excitement, hope, or delight. I love listening somebody sing something that causes a change in my thinking: an “oh…” or an “ah!” moment. I love experiencing technical expertise in music. I love when you can sense technical expertise in someone, but even more evident is the constant restraint that they show. I love the endless possibilities within music. I love the process of creating, unfolding, designing. I love the process of putting my heart on my sleeve, and standing behind a song or an idea. I love that we are able to capture moments, capture expressions, capture sounds through recording. I love the complex detail within some recordings, and the surprising simplicity within others.

Music is a 5-minute or 40-minute echo of life; it shapes us, moulds us, mirrors us, exposes us. Music says things about us that we don’t understand. It causes us to say things about ourselves that surprise. Music is a life-breath sometimes, it is an overflow other times; it is addictive, it is bitter, it is medicine, it is poison. Some people live for it, some people thrive on it, some jog to it, some go deaf for it. Music is a wide and broad as the east to the west, as high as the sky is from the depths. It is as personal as it gets, yet as universal as anything can be. Music is wonderful, mysterious, out-of-control, subtle, delicate, outrageous, beautiful.

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