Once, I asked a question to a group of children who have never received any music education. “What is music?” I asked them. There were all kinds of answers: “sound”, “songs”, “singings”…Well, probably they were right. However, the definition of music is way beyond these. Music connects, it creates an invisible “bridge” between human beings — even if they never met each other. Music is a skill, people pay to learn music and buy musical instruments. Yes, we need not to be taught to listen or “feel” music, but it requires lots of practices, time and energy to perform, analyse, and lastly create music. Music is a language, a universal language — we know that a singer is relaxed, or mad, or sad through their music, even though we do not understand the language of the lyrics. How amazing is that? Like, we have some sort of telepathic capability to know what messages are they trying to convey, just through some arranged sound waves and rhythm?
I describe good music as “beautiful” music. It is not that they are visually beautiful, in fact, they are physically unseeable. It is about the way where all the pitches connect that makes a piece of music “beautiful”. Examples like how the melodies harmonise (connect) with the accompaniments, how a section of one musical piece or song connects to another, and the most importantly — how good music connects to our hearts. A good performance is not meant to be enjoyed alone, instead, it is meant for everybody who listens. Good music inspires, motivates and makes people wanted to learn more and know more about you, or your music. People perceive music differently according to their experiences and knowledge, but I believe that everyone’s ideas are unique and could be written into different stories and songs. A song may be simple and short, but if it touches you and convey positive, honest message, it is a good song.
Music is much more than just “talent”. It is a skill. People spend long period of time to pick up the skills, training different kinds of techniques, and generally, people learn how to solve problems — just like the other subjects we learn in school. Problems like “how to synchronise both hands with pedal on the piano”, or “how to hit high notes for voice”, or even “how to produce nicer tone on the flute”……Just like conducting a science experiment, practising music has a definite motive, variables (constant variable, manipulated variable and responding variable), hypothesis, techniques and results. For example, today, I am going to learn a new piano piece, “Love me” by Yiruma.
1. Aim (of this practice session): To learn all of the notes (only) of part 1
2. Variables:
Constant variable: The notes printed on the music sheets
Manipulated variable: Hand playing the notes (Right or Left)
Responding variable: The familiarity of the piece
3. Hypothesis: Within today, I will be more familiar with the “connection” of the notes by practising them with separated hands.
4. Techniques: Divide the long piece into sections, (eg: one page per section), practice with slow tempo to achieve higher accuracy of every note.
5. Results: The hypothesis is accepted.
Well, my point is, it is not that you don't have any musical talent. It is just a matter of your willingness to learn, and the way of learning. Explore new ways of practising to know which works the best in you, as the matter of fact, music is a skill, not a “natural-born” thing. "Science is art, and art is science." Once you figured the secret “bridge” between science and art, you will find your music.
Music is a language. It has its own “grammar” and has different functions in different kinds of context. For example, we say “we feel sorry for you” to a person who had just lost his/her loved one, and not “congratulations”, right? Similarly, we use slow tempo and minor key for sad songs, and not fast tempo with short notes (generally). Well, you can, but it may seem a bit weird, just like how you say “congratulations for losing your loved one”…you get what I mean? Different tempo (slow/fast), key, the values of each note indicate the character or the overall emotion of one piece; just like how we accent our voice when we are giving a speech to convey a particular message. Every character brings different kinds of “aura” and impact to one’s mind. Probably one day, if the music is so influential, it may change your perception towards the world.
I don’t usually analyse music “scientifically” like what I did in this essay (well probably I do, but unconsciously). If this helped you to understand music more, I am willing to do more in the future. Music is a good way to excite the artistic part of your brain, and eventually become more “intelligent”. Learning music is essential, this skill brings more benefits than you could imagine — and it is never too late to learn music! There are plenty of free music education videos out there, all you have to do is to type “how to play piano (or any instrument) for beginner” on the Youtube. (But of course, finding a proper teacher is the fastest way to learn). Psst, bonus, this skill follows you until you die. It is yours forever! No one can take it away. Do feel free to ask me questions: wanying0427@gmail.com or comment below.
All the best!
- Wednesday, June 22, 2016
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