Not a review, but a music blog!!

Music appreciation

Recently I have had the smoldering embers of my love and appreciation for music reignited, not that they’d really every died. I have always loved music, in many forms, I have quite an eclectic taste, everything from heavy metal to classical and all sorts in between. As long as the piece of music ‘speaks to me’ I love it. I don’t know, exactly, what has to grab me to like it, but that’s how my mind works.

Music has helped me through many times: happy, sad, soul-destroying, panicked, apprehensive and joyous.

Funny how music is as good a therapy as anything, it can transport you somewhere else, somewhere out of your normal humdrum existence and make your troubles melt away just with a good melody, maybe some well written words and an acceptable beat for the type of music. I don’t need drugs or drink to escape my woes, just give me something creative to fight it away and I’ll get through it.

Last week I had my love for classical music reignited, I remembered how my dad used to have a handful of classical vinyl albums, yes, remember vinyl?? Well, he used to own a copy of Holst’s Planet suite and also a couple of others, can’t quite remember all of them, I know that Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev was in there too. Well, I sat for a while on youtube listening to classical music and loved it. I also now want a kettledrum (you may laugh, it was one of the few instruments my music teacher used to allow me to play, seeing as I wasn’t ‘gifted’ and couldn’t afford to rent an instrument).

When I got married and moved to America for a while I wasn’t allowed to work on the visa type we had, so my husband made sure I could ‘fill my days up’ with stuff to enjoy. One of which was I started learning to play the Alto Saxophone and really loved it! Then I went on to learning the clarinet too, but then having kids got in the way and took over my ‘spare time’. A while later we got a digital piano and I started to learn to play that too. Then we moved back to England and we have, now, just got another piano and, again, with the same book, I’m trying to learn to play. I’m also just as happy listening to other people with a knack for the craft of music making.

I love the fact that a piece of music can evoke memories, times you did something and that piece of music was playing. It can remind you of someone special who may not be around any more. It can bring back bad memories too, but if you find the right counteracting piece of music then you can settle that one out of your mind again. A great evoker of emotions too, look at a good movie soundtrack, it can make you want to jump for joy, cry your eyes out, fill you with hope, scare you to death and bring on any emotion that they want you to feel.

I do love some great percussion!! One of my all time favourite songs is The Obvious Child by Paul Simon, great song and fantastic video. I’ve always wanted to go and see ‘Stomp’ but haven’t had the chance, maybe one day. This love for percussion may have started from when I was younger and my parents split up, one of my classmates mum’s used to look after me, occasionally, and my classmates brother used to play the drums. He used to be ‘shut in’ and you could still feel the beats thumping out into the house, brilliant. I love to feel the beats at a live performance, be it a band or orchestra.

One of my most fun experiences, pure surprise that night, was going to see the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and after the concert, in the lobby of the DSO building, was a man by the name of Tony Bahu, Tony who? I hear you cry!! Tony Bahu, check out his website, look on youtube for him, he’s brilliant!! He plays the Dumbek and plays with his audience brilliantly! He watches what reactions he gets as he plays his own beats over the top of popular music and he will speed things up, slow them down and really feeds off the reactions, fantastic percussionist and well worth seeing if you see his name!! He’ll have you dancing or at least your toes tapping, I promise!

I haven’t been to a live performance in over 3 years now, and I do quite miss it. Just the atmosphere, itself, usually makes up half the experience, the fact you’ve all gone to see an artist you all like and there’s lots of you there. Love to watch the passion musicians put into a performance, although I think I’m mellowing as I’m getting older, ripe old age of 35 right now, I appreciate music more now and don’t want constant screaming over it. I’d happily sit and watch a group practice! Seriously, they could make muck ups as much as they like, I just love to watch people play music. I love listening to it. Listening to ‘digital’ copies of music is fine, but it’s still nothing like a true live performance.

So here I am, fighting with the duties of being a mum and bedtimes and the like, and my love for music is slightly muted, but will not be extinguished!! I’m even listening to music as I write this. Go enjoy some music, whatever your taste is and really listen to it, find the different instruments in it, find the rhythm changes, listen to the lyrics carefully and feel the ‘story’ that the writer is trying to get across, even if some are utter nonsense. Listen to some older stuff, listen to a bit of classical or opera. There’s so much to listen to and it’s so ‘available’ to everyone, or just go and get a couple of spoons out of your drawer in the kitchen and play the spoons!! Grab a couple of wooden spoons and drum on your kitchen worktop!! Why not, go and enjoy music and appreciate the work the artists put into it!!!