Music, At Its Essence

I lean against the window and see the empty streets and silent trees and lifeless houses pass me by. Music still in my ear, I find myself playing…….. [Song

I felt my heart racing, heard my name being called, and suddenly, anxiety turned into elation. Within moments, I was walking across the international stage in Orlando in front of 16,000 people. I had won 5th at DECA Internationals!

Music is an extremely important part of human life and has been part of human life for thousands of years. Music can be linked with many different art forms such as art and language; these too are distinct expressions of humans. This particular expression has survived and outlived ancient languages and could possibly be older than any form of language we know. It also serves the same purpose as language, to convey meaning. Music is a way of bringing people together, and is used as a social ritual. In human life music is part of culture and it is also important historically. Music also contributes to the economy, as it is a means of making money as well as part of human leisure.

“Musical is a universal experience. With few exceptions, all humans perceive musical pitch, tone, timbre, and harmony. We listen to music to relax, to help us think, to celebrate, and grieve. Our emotional responses to music have been noted in literature, poetry, and drama. The power of music to evoke an emotional response is used by advertising companies, film directors, and mothers singing their babies to sleep. Early education teachers are familiar with using music and rhythm as tools for learning language and building memory. (Foran, 2009) Several musical melodies are used in grade school to learn information. Music is used in my math classes across the world to enhance the learning process of formulas. English classes use music help children learn prepositional phrases, adjectives, adverbs, noun, and etc. However, after most scholars reached a certain grade level, using music to achieve new heights academically became a technique of the past. Most instructors didn’t bother using music in order to help retain information. It was almost as if it was forgotten about. But, if music is so important why isn’t it allowed in most classrooms today? Many teachers are not fond of music in the classroom. To many, it is seen as a distraction. Is it the type of music a person chooses to listen to? Would it be different if the music chosen by

Songs are psychologically proved to be easier to remember because alliteration, repetition, and rhyme are mnemonics, or memory aids that people have developed over time, according to Psychology Today. For centuries, humans from every part of the world have orally passed down stories through songs. Stories, information, and history are easier passed down through song from generation to generation, or from person to person. This method of sharing stories has been an extremely integral part of our history. For example, Harriet Tubman created many verbal codes to act as maps to help slaves escape through the underground railroad. It was vital that slaves remembered the instructions, so Harriet Tubman cleverly set the escape codes to songs. Because

Music helps us remember events and feel emotions - whether we want to or not. This phenomenon has changed the way we experience and remember songs. Humans have associated certain music with events and emotions for as long as we had the capability to (Baumgartner 316), so listening to these familiar sounds brings forth the memories that come with

Music is the only medium that blesses both man and God at the same time and as such to see it as an entertainment factor within our worship services is a gross misunderstanding of its purpose. Music is made up of three elements: melody, harmony, and rhythm. Mankind is also made up of three parts: spirit, soul and body (1 Thess 5:23). It can be argued that music and the triune, or trichotomy, of mankind are intrinsically linked i.e. melody is likened to the spirit, harmony to the soul and rhythm to the body.

The hum of the air conditioner was drowned out by the radio, blasting the music just a touch too loud. The singing accompanying the radio was slightly sharp, her brother’s voice straining itself to be heard over the music. She rested her head on the window, eyes following the pavement markings as they raced by. The same trees had lined the highway on either side for the past two hours, and if it weren’t for the sign they drove past welcoming them to North Carolina, there would have been no indication they’d moved at all. The music quieted, and an instruction was given robotically from her father’s phone.

Some people remember things based on the date or who they were with, others tie their memories to specific emotion-filled moments, I remember everything based on what song was playing. I listened Supertramp’s “Breakfast in America”, off my brother’s first generation iPod, the first time my mom allowed me to bike alone through the neighborhood. Carpools home from rec soccer practice were filled with the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” and geeky dance moves, windows rolled down so everyone could see. Coming home from fencing practice and studying late at night was an accompaniment of Bruce Springsteen songs being quietly played on the piano by my dad. Whatever the memory, music permeates each and every one.

Last night the wind carried your scent. Trees were blooming inside my brain. A nostalgic rain was dripping happiness

Music takes root as an influential aspect of our lives from an early point. Many of us can recall times with mother or fathers spent listening to records and singing

While passing through rainstorms on road-trips, I’d sit in the backseat with the music turned all the way up to block out the booming thunder. A velveteen voice croons against a lyrical violin score. The luscious words entangle me with their viscosity and I sink into their familiar embrace while the

We arrived at the theatre about an hour before the performance started. We anxiously waited in the lobby with hundreds of people, mostly women, all dressed in their finest. Just when the room seemed to reach just beyond its capacity, the doors opened, and people trickled into the large performance space. My aunt, my mother, and I scanned the seat numbers until we found ours

We finally arrived to the arena. I got out of the car and waited in line. The line seemed so long. It seemed like it took ages to finally get to the front. Every step I took towards the doors were breath taking. I was one more step closer to getting into the arena then the last step. Step by step, I was finally there. I showed a man in a green shirt my pass and there I was. Looking out into the 7 stages where my favorite bands and people I look up too were about to

Nervous and fearful, I had slowly walked the two feet from the bottom of the aisle to the center of the theater. There was no turning back anymore. I had already walked down ten rows and giving up would have been a complete waste of my twenty-five seconds. I stopped. I turned around and faced my audience. The upperclassmen seemed like hungry beasts. I seemed like a little rabbit. But there was no turning back.