Music

Music is a subject perfectly suited to studying at home. To learn music without tests, exams, degrees, and certificates, is to learn music in the time-honoured, tried and tested, good, old-fashioned way. The aim is not to gain another's approval, the aim is enjoyment, which I think it really should be, because music has the potential to be so enjoyable.

Even in our modern society where such simple and basic pleasures such as gardening, sewing, knitting, drawing, and even cooking, are often cast aside, music has somehow managed to survive.

Everybody has their favorite song, their favorite CD, or their favorite style of music, - and yet how many people play music themselves?
I would say, that if listening to music is good fun, then it is as nothing when compared to the fun of making it. When you join in a song, you become a part of it, the music is not just floating into your ears, but is a part of you, and carries you away on its own special journey.

To describe the enjoyment of playing music would be impossible, but believe me, you really don't have to be good at the instrument to feel it. I am not very good at any instrument, yet I have experienced this incredible musical fun from the very beginning.

An Inborn Love of Music
Music is a part of everyone, and when that part is ignored a person must surely be missing out on one of the greatest pleasures of being human.

It is interesting to see the total lack of musical appreciation which animals possess. A song is played, and they will flap back their ears, look distressed, or run away in fear. But you only have to sing a song to even the tiniest baby to see how he loves it! As soon as a child can walk, they will start to dance when music is played.

This proves, to me at least, that a love of music and a sense of rhythm is innate.

Putting People Off
From this promising beginning it is hard to work out how it all goes wrong. Most people don't play an instrument, and wouldn't want to try, those who do are considered in some way to be specially gifted; live music is almost solely heard at concerts, and one hardly ever hears people singing as they do things.

The world of music has become strangely inaccessible: the idea of playing an instrument is accompanied with concepts such as: starting at a young age, going to a teacher, studying how to read music, and generally having a difficult time, with the aim being to master the instrument. Most adults consider themselves too old to begin, the idea then becomes to pour their enthusiasm into their child and make them practise regularly, in the hope that they will thank them for it one day. This is a very depressing scenario. How it came to be this way, I don't know, but now that it has, perhaps it is not surprising how few people feel inspired to play music.

In the Past
I find it fascinating to read about how music was taught and played in days gone by. All cultures, all nations, all people, it seems, have shared the same passion for music, and until recently it has been a part of everyday life all over the world, and in some places it still is.

In the evenings when the work was done, somebody would start singing, and everyone else would join in, with voice or instrument. They would clap their hands, beat a drum, bang two sticks together, do anything to be a part of the song, and those who didn't want to play could dance, thereby making everyone involved. To me, this just seems normal, this is the way music should be. Like this, music is something for everyone, not just for a talented few. Learning an instrument is not painful or difficult, it is just joining in the medley, and naturally improving every time you play.

Once, I went to a concert of Zimbabwean musicians playing their traditional music. They had obviously learnt this way, and to watch them play was fascinating - it was so unpretentious. They weren't at all tense, they would sometimes stop playing to do something else, and then join in again a little later; they had no music, no notes they had to adhere to, they were sat down and looked relaxed and happy, enjoying what they were playing, whilst looking around and taking things in. They made playing an instrument seem like the easiest thing in the world, and what struck me more than anything, was how incredibly good they were!

Just because they were behaving in a wholly unprofessional manner didn't mean they were playing any less well. They were so good, and the music they were creating was so enjoyable to hear. And yet to have them sitting on a stage with spotlights and microphones, with us, like idiots, sitting in the theater, unable even to get up and dance, was a ridiculous and unnatural situation.

In a society where people sing as they do things, and end the day's work with music and dancing, it is easy, it seems, to learn to play an instrument well, without ever having 'lessons' or a teacher, or a music book, or exercises to practise, or anything which makes learning difficult. But our society today is far from being like this - there is no one to even show a beginner how to hold the instrument, and as one never hears the old songs sung, one has to be able to read music in order to gain access to them.

However, I believe that within a family it is not difficult to create an atmosphere like that of olden times. If the parents aren't intimidated by music, and they make instruments accessible to their children, if they sing as they do things, and learn an instrument themselves, then they will succeed in creating a musical atmosphere, like in days of old, in which learning an instrument is not difficult.
Although I don't remember it, the first music I ever heard must have been the songs which my parents sang to me whilst getting me to sleep, and I can't help thinking this the perfect introduction to music. My mother always sang around the house, and so we did too, making our lives something of a living musical!
If a parent doesn't play an instrument, they can learn, and if they don't have the time or inclination to do this, they can create a musical atmosphere by having instruments in the house for the children to try out, and singing as they do things.

Singing
I believe that through singing, more feeling can be expressed than through any instrument.  The incredible breath of life and the body itself is used, and not only can meaning be conveyed through the melody, as with any instrument, but through words as well. 
A book isn't really necessary to learn how to sing; practice and familiarity make one able to take a breath without gasping, sing without a quaver, and hit the high and low notes. If one sings, one gets good at it, although training is probably necessary if a person aims to sing in an operatic manner.
Of course, not everyone has what is considered to be a 'good' voice. If you are such a person, then you can take encouragement in the fact that when voices sing together, they sound good, even if individually they don't. Somehow, the best of the sound comes to the ears, and the worst of the sound is lost. But I can't help thinking that if somebody loves singing, they will sing well, even if their voice isn't 'good'. In the days of slavery in North America, singing was a way of life, and everybody, it seems, sang. They didn't all have good voices; some of them, by all accounts, were extremely husky, or squeaky, but because they sang all the time, and that was what they loved to do, and because they expressed their feelings in their voice, they sang well, and when they joined in with all the other singers on the plantation, and took their harmony, the result is said to have been amazing.

I know that for me personally, I have a need to sing which goes beyond whether or not I have a good or a bad voice. If I don't want to bother people I will go and sing by myself, because I don't sing in the hope of pleasing other people, I sing because I need to. If I feel sad it can make me feel happy, if I am downcast, it has the power to raise my spirits. I know it is similar with listening to music too, but like I said, listening to music is not the same as actually making the music oneself.

Playing Music
Here are some tips about playing an instrument which I have found to be true:

• Don't be dogged: When following a set of course books, it is easy to become dogged, i.e. I won't skip a tune, I will learn them all off by heart, I won't stop doing the course till it is finished, etc. Although a certain amount of self-control is needed to do course books, you will often find that course books can make you so bored with your instrument you never feel like playing it. Course books generally contain the most tedious exercises , which fill one with a hatred for one's music, and sometimes they have tunes to learn, which you simply don't like.
  With music it really pays to be a bit more free, and only play the tunes you love. If a particular tune really does something for you, I guarantee you will learn it ten times as fast. Thus it really does pay to play only what you like, because you will progress at ten times the speed.
  
• Reading music: If reading music is difficult for you, you don't have to give up playing. Playing music and reading music are two different things. Play by ear, or make up your own arrangements; this is what people have done for centuries, and it is not inferior. Reading music is academic, and as with reading and writing, some people find it difficult, but playing music is about listening and feeling and I don't think anyone finds that difficult.
  
• Pick and Choose: There is plenty of information which can be gleaned from course books, and plenty more which can be gathered from the internet, from seeing people play on the television or live, from listening to CDs, and from meeting real people who play. There is no need to just stick to one course, or to have just one teacher, you can pick and choose, and find what is right for you, thereby creating your own tailor-made course, which suits you best.
  
• Make the aim enjoyment, not virtuosity: If you play so that you can become virtuoso, then all that time will be wasted if you don't succeed. If you play so that you can enjoy yourself, virtuosity will come as a side effect; that is the wonderful way these things work.
  
• Play for yourself: Even if you have a teacher, even if you have an audience, don't play for them, play for yourself. Play for your own enjoyment, and play just the tunes that you like best. Play from your own feeling, from your own passion, from your own love of the music; because you will discover that, just like with art, or with writing, you have your own style, and nobody can play quite like you. 
  

Above all, have fun! I wish you the best of luck... 

 -Wendy Lewis

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