Why do you love music?

Hi friends.  My last two posts have been a little heavy, and in that last one I said something that I felt like I needed to work through a little more, so today, it's time for something a little more positive.  Last time, I said of music and musicians, "it's like we hate the thing we're supposed to love," and it brought to mind a blog I read a few years ago by a blogger I love named Film Crit Hulk.

In his post, Hulk reacted to a peer's cynical reflection on tropes in film by simply listing all the things he loved about movies, and I couldn't think of a better follow-up to that last post then to make a list of all the reasons I love music.  I'm not just doing classical music either, my love for everything is getting its time today, because some times, I need reminding.

Before I start, here's the original work by Film Crit Hulk:

http://badassdigest.com/2012/02/05/why-you-love-movies/

And here's a video in the same format by another favorite of mine, Bob Chipman, the Game Overthinker, involving video games:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr3iXginLUY

So, here's why I love music:

Because of Ralph Vaughan Williams

Because of band tees.

Because of date nights at the symphony.

Because of DIY punk shows in basements and barns.

Because of the moments when you're grooving to the same radio station as the guy next to you at the light.

Because of the second half of Abbey Road.

Because the main character in Quadrophenia is named Jimmy.

Because somehow Al Kooper sucking at the organ is beautiful.

Because of the horn solo that sounds like a mistake in Beethoven's 5th.

Because of the Cannons in 1812 Overture.

Because of Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins...but mostly Peter Gabriel.

Because of the drum solo in Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida

Because freaking Kermit the Frog can sing a song that makes my emotional.

Because "The Pianist" being a movement in Carnival of the Animals still makes me giggle.

Because it can enhance our words.

Because it can replace our words.

Because it can surpass our words.

Because of the click of vinyl

Because of the clarity of MP3's.

Because of the suicide scene in Les Mis.

Because of the battle themes in Final Fantasy.

Because of the music in Star Wars.

Because of the music in Mario.

Because of Zeppelin II.

Because of Zeppelin IV.

Screw it...because Zeppelin.

Because of 4'33"

Because of My Favorite Things...

Especially the Coltrane version.

Because of Iggy Pop's energy.

Because of The Wall of Sound.

Because of the Carolina Crown's spinning diamond in 2013.

Because of when Marcus Mumford's voice cracks in Broken Crown.

Because of the chorale in Finlandia.

Because of the vocal range of Mike Patton.

Because of the emotional range of Aretha Franklin.

Because of the drum battle between Rich and Krupa.

Because of Leslie West's guitar tone.

Because of Joshua Bell's violin tone.

Because of Joe Alessi's trombone tone.

Because of ska-punk covers of 80's songs.

Because of amplification.

Because of orchestration.

Because of literally every word that Leonard Cohen has ever written.

Because you never find out what "that" is that he won't do for love.

Because of just how many ways there are to sing about love.

Because of how many ways there are to sing about sex.

Because you can't listen to Stevie Wonder and sit still at the same time.

Because I'm finally starting to understand Tom Waits.

Because I'm still hearing new things in Dark Side of the Moon.

Because nobody does epic like Mahler does epic.

Because you can't top the build up in Mars.

Because it gave us Bach.

Because you couldn't have Fantasia without the music.

Because Stravinsky was Warren Zevon's piano teacher.

Because Baba O'riley played on the radio as I left Randolph heading to college.

Because of the way that Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris's voices seemed made for each other.

Because of the bari sax solo at the beginning of Moanin'.

Because Levon Helm lost his voice to cancer and re-taught himself to sing, so he could entertain you.

Because Shostakovich's instrumental music was considered political enough to be banned.

Because when Boots Riley raps, you listen.

Because you can fit sitars in English pop music.

Because you don't have to speak Italian or German to be moved by an opera.

Because of Sufjan Stevens' album covers...oh, and songs.

Because of the anticipation of a bass drop.

Because of the anticipation of a perfect authentic cadence.

Because Over the Rainbow can move eight year olds to tears.

Because Over the Rainbow can move eighty year olds to tears.

Because it makes us feel totally on our own.

Because it makes us feel like we are not alone.

Because the singer from Korn is actually having a break down on the recording of Daddy.

Because some times in rehearsals, I can't help but squeal in excitement.

Because Frank Zappa never compromised.

Neither did Hank Williams.

Neither did Richard Wagner.

Because Woody Guthrie songs could have been written today.

Because Rush songs could only have been written in the 70's.

Because Handel's music sounds like it's always existed.

Because Neil Young gets the respect he deserves.

Because the Drive-By Truckers said more about American culture with one album then some whole genres manage.

.

Because of Mozart's horn concertos.

Because of the riff in Sunshine of Your Love.

Because of Kind of Blue.

Because of the bass line in Respect.

Because of the clarinet solo in Blue Shades.

Because if Meat Loaf, Susan Boyle, and Lemmy aren't too ugly for music, neither am I.

Because of the total lack or irony in Feed Jake by Pirates of the Mississippi.

Because Johnny Cash singing hurt still gets me.  Every.  Single.  Time.

Because my grandma loved to sing.

Because there's nothing I enjoy more then music...

Except maybe sharing it with the people I love.

Because there's an album out there that I haven't heard yet, waiting to change my life.

Because the next great orchestra piece is being written right now.

But, most of all, I love music because of the times in my life when I felt so down, so depressed, so worthless, that I couldn't bring myself out of it.  Neither could my friends.  Neither could my parents.  Neither could any show or movie or book...

But Todd Snider or Beethoven always could.


Folks, I know this was cheesy, I know it probably seems like a meaningless exercise, but I got so much joy out of it.  As easy as it is to get cynical, I'm glad that I can still find the things in music that drive me and compel me to keep with it.  But enough from me.  What do you love about music?  What are those moments, songs, or pieces that enrich your life?  Leave a comment, I'd love to know.

-Jimmy

Transcending Snobbery in Classical Music

Hi again, everybody.  I have something I've been meaning to talk about, and for my readers out there who are classical musicians, fans, and teachers it may be tough to hear, but here it goes.  Guys: we HAVE to stop being such colossal fucking snobs.  

I know, I know, I sound like I'm up on a pretty high horse myself, but please hear me out.  I'm as guilty as everyone else on this one, and in the future, I know that I'll have to hear this too, so let me have it when I do.  But really, we've been hurting ourselves with an exclusionary attitude for far too long.

I understand where it comes from, I really do.  Those of us who are musicians develop our love of music from the inside out.  We start working on our instruments when we're 10 or even younger, before we've developed any critical faculties.  For many of us, we understand things like tuning, technique, and phrasing before we can even identify what makes a piece of music touch us.  That's how it is, and how it has to be.  High art that requires such a refined skill set has to be started early and music education is a major part of the development of many children.  This does, however, have a few negative effects.

Because we spend all those hours in private lessons, having our playing put under a microscope by our teachers, facing critiques as an essential part of the learning process, we grow up to be pretty critical people ourselves.  It's not necessarily our fault, it was bound to happen, but man, it gets exhausting.

It manifests in many ways.  Somebody makes a mistake in a practice room as you pass and you scoff, someone has an off day in orchestra and for the rest of the year they're "the problem," you sit in band waiting and listening for someone to fail to tune a chord or hit a rhythm, so YOU can have the satisfaction of correcting them.  I've been the guy on both sides of this, and it's no way to live.  Everybody loves to help, but if you're looking for mistakes ALL the time, you'll find them and never enjoy anything.  It makes you cynical and it's hard to interpret a piece with a free and open mind if you're weighed down with so much cynicism.  And it's impossible to listen to one.

It happens almost all the time when I attend a local symphony concert.  I or someone with me spends the whole way home griping about something.  A horn player was out of tune.  The timpanist missed an entrance.  The cello player got lost.  And we dwell on it and stew and bitch.

"But wasn't that harp solo awesome?"

"*grumblegrumblegrumble*"

"That Shostakovich piece was beautiful huh?"

"Yeah...whatever."

It's like we hardly even tolerate the thing we supposedly love.  I've even seen it invoked by educators.  They'll tell me "My sax student is awful," or "My clarinets can't tune," in the same tone they use to shame their peers, and that's disgraceful.  It is your job to cultivate a love of music in your students, to teach them and critique where necessary, and if your self-righteous cynicism is getting in the way of that, THE PROBLEM IS YOU.

Our inability to turn off the part of us that needs personal validation of our musical skill through the demeaning of others isn't just annoying and exhausting either.  I believe it is hurting us directly.  It's said that only 3% of people listen to classical music, which is abominably low compared to how many people listen to country, pop, rock, electronica, or even our beloved little sister jazz.  

Now, let me ask you, do you really think that only 3% of people can identify with the misery of "Adagio for Strings?"  That only 3% of people can feel the righteous rage in Shostakovich #5?  Do you REALLY think that 97% percent of people can hear "Carnival of the Animals" and not be charmed and entertained.  Sure, way too many people go "What, no words? No thanks," but we are not helping.  Nobody likes going to the symphony to try something new or to experience some culture, only to be corrected on the pronunciation of "Dvorak," or to be sushed for clapping between movements, or to be scolded for being under dressed.

Worst of all nobody likes being told "You just don't get it."

They'll get it.  Given the chance, they'll understand.  The great, involved, emotional works touch on things that are universal to the human experience.  If we shame people and make them feel like they're somehow below us, because we make the music and are the only ones who understand it, we are doomed to spend all eternity as a medium stuck up our own butts, sniffing the ripe farts of self-satisfaction.  

The time has come, my fellow musicians, to cast aside the snobbery and cynicism that we've learned over the years, and be understanding and compassionate to our peers, students, and audience.  That or face our own irrelevance.  And again, folks, I needed to hear this just as much as I needed to say it.  So, from hear on in, I'll watch out for you and you'll watch out for me, and we'll call each other out the next time our snobbery shuts someone out. 

Deal?

Deal.

-Jimmy