Everyone has a bad day, no doubt about it. Everyone has that time in their life where it seems that everyone and everything is bearing down on them just a little too much. Question is, what to do about it. Everyone finds a way to deal with it eventually, but it's the how that we need to look at. Some feel there's no way out, and they attempt suicide. Some find artifical escape with chemicals, and find out that nothing really changed, nothing really went away, even if they were hoping it would. Some actually deal with stress. They work out their problems, solve their dilemmas, and feel like a whole person for all their good hard work. Some deny their stress, to find it finally built up too much for them to deal with, and finally, some deal with stress in a creative way.
I remember when my friends and I first formed a band. It was a great joy just to come down into the cramped little basement of my drummer's grandmother's house, and just let our cares fly away as we played. We decided then and there that our practices would be the place where we wouldn't worry about anything but the music we were playing. No problems that existed outside that basement were allowed to bother us while we were down there. This agreement turned out to be alot easier to abide by than any of us thought it would be. It also turned out to be a great idea. In a few of my past essays that I've written here, I've said how music makes me feel. I've also talked about some of the healing effects that music seems to have on us. I've tried (allmost for a year now) to find empirical evidence that music is actually effective in healing and increasing the rate of recovery. I know that I may never find empirical evidence, but I also know that there are things that you can't explain with empirical methods. What I also know is that music makes me feel like nothing else on this earth. I know that it picks me up when I'm down, like no drug could ever do. I know that I feel whole when I play. I know that I will never give it up for anything, it's just too valuable to me. At the beginning of one rehearsal with my new band (we're semi-professionals now, so "jamming" now turns into rehearsal), my female singer came in a little late (she was having a rough day) and stood there, watching the other four of us playing, and obviously enjoying ourselves. After we came out of our music-induced bliss, and realized that she was just standing there watching us, we stopped. Someone eventually asked the obvious question: "What?" She smiled, and said in reply. "Oh nothing, it's just that I was standing here, watching you guys and I realized how much I really enjoy playing. It's like a different world when I'm here. I love it." Her words pretty much say what I'm trying to explain. "A different world" is exactly what it's like. Things that you worry about in day to day life don't seem to stack up to much. You have almost no need for anything, save maybe if you're a singer and your throat gets dry. Material needs definately don't exist there either, and sometimes, time seems to stop. You may say that this is both good and bad, and I would agree. On the con side, music can be like drugs, pulling you away from reality to the point where you have trouble functioning normally in society. I think this is why people regard all people of the arts as slightly quirky, if not a bit insane. We have to be. On the other hand, pulling someone away from reality may be just what they need. It's definately a way to get a new perspective on things, and when you get a new perspective, you get new ideas, and with new ideas, comes new hopes. It's a shame I cannot share this with everyone. Maybe the world would be better for it. Then again, maybe I can....do yourself a favor when you're in a rut, and try this: Grab an instrument, or warm up your voice, and just let music take you somewhere else. If you don't play, don't worry, you can do this instead: grab your favorite album, or your favorite novel, or favorite painting, or favorite play, poem, short story, whatever...and let it take you to the world where it exists. Don't let time be a factor, take an hour, a day, a week, a month, whatever you need. When you come back home, you'll feel much more refreshed than when you started, like you're ready to take on all of the problems of the world. And imagine what we can do if everybody felt this way....
Pax perem musicum.
Ok y'all...this is your chance, tell it like it is...you have a band you're just dying to tell everyone about? (if it's your own, that's ok too). You just heard an album by someone new, or someone dead that's driving you bonkers every hour that you play it? Tell us!! We want to know!! This is a place to share good stuff that you think others might just enjoy. No negative reviews, please...we don't do that here. You think someone sucks? Tell them to their face, and see how well everyone takes constructive criticism...Oh..by the way...tell us when and where a band/solo artist/ensemble is performing, or where we can find the album/single/soundbyte, some of us just might want to check it out. Also, if anyone has music they want to share via the Net, send it here...we'll give it a listen...but we make no promises..
I want to send in my ideas to the Music Clinic!
I want to send you my Music Reviews! I know that all responses will be considered, and those selected for the article will be duly credited to the author.