Enrichment and Enhancement of Life by the Inclusion of Music - Essay Example

Whereas music is an important element in my own life and history, it is hardly so essential that its absence would render my life devoid of meaning.

            According to the National Association for Music Education, “Music is a natural and important part of young children’s growth and development.” (Position Statement on Early Childhood Education 1) In keeping with that philosophy, those charged with my growth and development felt that I, too, should study music. So, in elementary school, I took up the study of the piano. With my hands suspended tentatively above the keyboard, my small fingers seemed powerless to coax music from that endless line of black and white keys. Perhaps my fingers were too small, the muscles underdeveloped, my hand-eye coordination lagging—whatever the reason, my piano career lasted about a month and ended with a consensus among all parties that the piano was not my instrument. Later, I spent a slightly-longer tenure attempting to master the flute but simply didn’t have the wind for it. Thus ended my formal study of music.

            When a child perceives that he or she has failed at something, those perceptions are powerful and enduring. I suspect that my early attempts to master a musical instrument erected a permanent barrier to any future efforts, and in some ways may have steered my tastes in music away from styles and genres that are more classical or acoustic.

            Growing up, as I did, in “flowers-in-your-hair” San Francisco, music was everywhere—drifting along Union Street, settling like a fog along the bay front—and music of every ethnicity and origin was woven into the fabric of daily life there. For me, my life with music as an older child and teen simply meant that there was always a soundtrack playing in the background—Asian tunes in Chinatown, opera in Little Italy, and Latino in the Mission District.  Due, in large part, to the diversity and inclusiveness of San Francisco, my musical tastes grew more eclectic. I found that I craved variety in the music I chose for my own listening pleasure. As an older teen and to the present, my musical tastes center on R&B, dance tunes, rap, freestyle, and mixes. For the most part, music is an accompaniment, a seasoning for other activities—dancing or driving mostly.

            Ralph Ellison relates an anecdote in which music precipitated a crisis of sorts for him. He tells of living in a cramped apartment with paper-thin walls and of his efforts to write while a rather diligent vocalist in the apartment above his drove him to distraction. “From morning to night she vocalized, regardless of the condition of her voice, the weather or my screaming nerves, […] the singer presented a serious ethical problem: could I, an aspiring artist, complain against the hard work and devotion to craft of another aspiring artist?” (Ellison 6)

            While reading that story, I found myself understanding and identifying with Elliot’s feelings. For some people, and for most people in some cases, music can be a distraction. For me, music must be an accompaniment, never another voice. By that, I mean that I cannot and do not study, work or read with music playing in the background. I have neurologically constructed such that music, despite the fact that I enjoy and appreciate it, can become a distraction or even an annoyance. For Ellison, even though music was vital to his fundamental definition of life, its absence at certain times was also critical to maintaining balance in life. The same is true for me. There are times when I require silence, and times when, for me, music is an intrusion and a serious distraction.

            Curiously, I seldom listen to music when I am alone. In thinking about the times when I do listen to music—at parties while dancing while driving—I realize that, for me, music is energizing, a force that enhances and amplifies other experiences. Also, for me, there is a social dimension to music. More often than not, it is something I enjoy and experience with others—seldom, as I mentioned above, by myself.

            Still, there are times when music calms and relaxes me or redirects my emotions and my mood to places that are quieter, more introspective. These are most often on those rare occasions when I am alone with my music and I allow the music to be my only focus.

            So, in conclusion, my life is one that is enriched and enhanced by the inclusion of music, but not, as was true for Ralph Ellison, one that depends upon music for its definition and existence.