…to enjoy music.
A warm, inspiring video about the enjoyment of music. A reminder to those of us who teach to not let the theoretical stuff crowd out the love and beauty and joy.
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Thank you to pianoaddict for sharing this on facebook.
I had an interesting discussion on this topic with an old music friend way back, Dr. Lorne Watson (Brandon University). He had a different opinion than me. I asked him the point blank question: “Who do you think enjoys music more, the trained musician or the lay person?” He thought the lay person. I thought the opposite. My idea is that the trained musician can enjoy “more” about the music, because he/she can intellectualise…and not even just that, but would have the added enjoyment of simply recognising more within the music (harmony, cadence, idiom, etc.). Lorne thought that having all this theoretical knowledge and experience in music would most likely clutter our mind and actually get in the way of simply just listening and enjoyment music. I think we’re both right, although I have now moved more toward his way of thinking. I just know I enjoy it immensely, and whenever I’m listening to music with others around, I notice that certain things in the music pop out to me, and I look at the other person and they are oblivious to the moment that just happened. Incidentally, a case in point…do you remember, LaDona, way back, you and I went to the Jubilee to hear a Beethoven piano concerto with Dale. Beethoven was neither your nor my favourite at that time (we were just a bit more into other composers then). Anyway, I remember that as the concerto progressed, you and I would turn to each other every once in a while, with raised eyebrows as if “did you hear that?!?” — could it be true? this wonderful music moment from Beethoven?!?” I think that was a turning point for me to open the door and allow more Beethoven in. He is still not my favourite, although I appreciate him a lot more than in my early music education.
Excuse the couple of grammar errors…”He had a different opinion than I” (not me…this sentence has a “subject-subject” relationship…and “me” is the direct (and indirect) object pronoun. Another error: “this wonderful musicAL moment from Beethoven” … just another detail to add … I believe this was Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 played by Robert Silverman (I’m friends with him on Facebook–he is still living in Vancouver).
I love to listen to jazz. One reason is that I turn off my analytical brain and just let the music wash over me. Of course, it’s not really possible to compare the enjoyment experiences of 2 people – but obviously I couldn’t imagine hearing classical music without being aware of every pitch, harmony, rhythm, and so on…. The knowledge of all this surely does enhance the experience – at least for me.
That really IS a good video, very cleverly done! Thanks for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it, Tim! And I confess – I don’t remember Silverman playing the Beethoven – although he was the big wheel at UBC when I was there so my memories of him are more of that time. My appreciation of Beethoven has grown exponentially in the last decade – again, largely a matter of a deeper appreciation of his work.
Reblogged this on Oak Park Music Therapy and commented:
Absolutely brilliant. You must watch this. Thanks LaDona!
I don’t understand music at all, not in a theoretical way. I can hardly read music, because I’ve always struggled to remember what I’ve previously learnt, so I can’t progress with it, almost feels like a music note dyslexia!! And yet I understand music by feeling, and I think if I taught myself to learn the sounds of the notes I’m fairly sure I would be able to recognise them by sound alone.
Even though I had virtually no music training at primary school, at 13 when I left school due to a teenage nervous breakdown and continued my education at home, I used to write lyrics and compose music to them on an electric organ we had at home. My parents were stunned, in fact so was I, because I had no idea where it had all come from, and there was no-one else musical in my family apart from my brother who had been very good at playing the treble recorder, and unlike me could read music perfectly. But he wasn’t attracted to it enough to turn it into anything more than something he had learnt at school.
I think those little musical moments at home, helped to heal my broken teenage mind, and allowed me to be creative, something that would never have happened if I had stayed at school! I think we are all so different in the way our brains work I’m a firm believer that there are many ways to learn one thing. And of course music is meant to be enjoyed from the heart, like beautiful art or a wonderful piece of prose.
And a great video by the way, very creative animation!
Thank you for this comment, Suzy. This comment had somehow ended up in Spam – good thing I check the spam box every so often.
What a refreshing account of music, healing and creativity. It’s pretty darn easy for us teachers to get hung up on a certain way of doing things, knowing full well that the student is incapable of responding, but not making the mental effort to adapt. We need these reminders.
Thank you for this.
I was going to rewrite this comment, because I realised that something strange had happened when I posted it. Something kind of pinged on the screen and it disappeared! So glad you got it, and even more pleased I held off from posting another comment, you may have ended up with two in the Spam box! I check my Spam box every day and delete the ones that are really Spam, and so far I have had two comments end up in there that were from people I have previously approved! Strange things happen on here sometimes!
Possibly a bit more discipline on my part in checking that box daily would be a good thing. It piles up and then it’s just intimidating. Yes, strange things happen.
All’s good now.
What a beautiful video! Reminds us to listen with our ears.