Play with Emotion!

One of the things I miss the most about high school is band.  Going in every day and forgetting everything else.  All the stress of life was gone for that short period.  To be fair, beating things with sticks helped too (percussion).  So why was music so important?  Why is it still so important?  What made band great?


The People
We'll start at the top.  Mr. Babb is awesome.  Having him for a teacher was a great honor.  I definitely miss him.
My friends.  Playing music is a wonderful experience, more so when you can do it with people you care about.  You are allowed to have more fun with it.  Perhaps "allowed" is the wrong word.  It is certainly easier to have more fun with it.  Especially in Jazz Band.  But either way, it means something I'll never forget.

The Music
Mr. Babb was great at picking music for us to play.  The pieces were diverse in style and emotion.  Ranging from "I Wonder As I Wander" to a pre-motion picture version of Lord of the Rings (which I still listen to today) to music from the game Halo.  It turned out that songs you wouldn't necessarily listen to by choice were always fun to play.

The History
Though sometimes hard to stay awake for, I always enjoyed music history.  There's something about knowing the roots of music and how styles developed that makes you feel like a part of it, even if you didn't produce any new music.  It makes you feel good when watching game shows too.

The Emotion
Music is not about the notes on the page, it's about the emotion behind the notes.  Play with emotion.  The music sounds a lot better that way.  For example, a guitar player sounds much better when he or she is alone, or...for the shy ones at least...  It allows the player a freer range of emotion.  They will do things they would never do in front of people.  They won't be afraid to put all of themselves into their music.  I'm sure this is true for players of other instruments as well, but I can really only speak about guitar players.  Actually, I can really only speak for myself, but hey, I really don't care if my blog is academically sound.  Have trouble playing in front of people?  Close your eyes.  You can be with you and yourself and your emotions are free to flow...mostly.

So, go play something.  Don't play an instrument?  Sing.  Can't sing?  Sing more.  Hate singing?  Listen to music (try something instrumental, listen to the emotion).  Don't like music?  The Fraggle judges you...