The power of music

[Lucas Milonga]

Hello, I would like to start a thread to chat about music, the place it occupies in your lives, the spiritual, social and therapeutic side. Your experiences and related activities. I am a musician and my way of seeing and feeling music has changed a lot in 30 years of dedication. With each passing day, I feel more intensely that it sustains my spirit, takes me away from loneliness, and gratifies me when I understand what it can really give me.
Are you interested in telling me about your relationship with music?

 

[1964dodge]

when i was a kid i used to love playing the trumpet. i was really good and played outside of the school enviroment. well becoming an adult i just stopped playing and now i can't even read music anymore.

my wife and i both love 50s and 60s music. when i'm on SF i usually listen to it. we have over a 100 songs just for cruising in our 64 dodge. of course the right music pushes the accelerator a bit harder lol. great thread @Lucas Milonga

mike....

 

[Lucas Milonga]

when i was a kid i used to love playing the trumpet. i was really good and played outside of the school enviroment. well becoming an adult i just stopped playing and now i can't even read music anymore.

my wife and i both love 50s and 60s music. when i'm on SF i usually listen to it. we have over a 100 songs just for cruising in our 64 dodge. of course the right music pushes the accelerator a bit harder lol. great thread @Lucas Milonga

mike....

I love the oldies. Doo wop, swing, foxtrot, mambo, tango, bolero. Also folklore from around the world. What kind of music did you play as a child? Don't you miss the rehearsals?

 

[1964dodge]

mostly 60s when i was a kid and i also had a weird fascination with hawian music lol. i also loved classical like beethoven and bach

mike....

 

[AmberMarie]

i LOVE this idea for a thread! Thank you for starting it.

i grew up loving music. my father encouraged it beyond everything. my fondest memories are of him playing the guitar while i sang or played along on a xylophone or recorder until i was old enough for a more intense instrument and began to play violin. From there i taught myself piano (not very good) and a few other instruments, but couldn't get a handle on guitar. I have a wide array of instruments, both old and new... folk to band to... everything. i love ALL genres and ages of music.

Music to me is life, and i used to say i was music. Music pushed my heart to beat. It can change a mood, feeling, and even health. My 1st and foremost loved instrument of choice is voice. i wanted to get into children's psychology using music.

About 6 months ago i think, not sure as time has gotten away from me since September... i suddenly could not listen to music. i avoided stores and places i knew played music that i could hear. At work i turned it down if not off. Something "snapped" within me about music. However, recently, within the last week or so, i have been able to listen to music again, and i can't stop. i can't describe the feeling as to why or how i feel other than it's my escape.

Lastly, my children (all adults) are also heavily into music... however none are through vocal. My middle child is now a DJ and mixing music... with Tokyo Machine being the inspiration. (and is about to debut many personal songs at a local club)

 

[KM76710]

Music is wonderful and I love it. Both listening and playing a bit here, guitar both accoustic and electric and I can badly play the banjo but have been told I have too many teeth to be playing the banjo. So much of favorites are older music from the 1970s and 1980s when I was growing from being a kid through my teens and twenties. I do like a bit of most things mainly rock and country and add in jazz, blues, and even since being a kid have loved classical very calming and soothing.

 

[MisterBGone]

I used to play the trumpet growing up, even joined a clown band after that. I learned that, I guess you'd say, the "proper way." Afterwards, I'd sort of had my fill w/learning music, or how to play a new one (instrument). Then along came the guitar. My only & soul goal or focus, was to learn to be able to play some of my favorite songs of/or at that time. And it's really never changed since! . . . Therefore, I have no faculty or vocabulary around the fretboard (navigation of) how to play scales (would still need a trumpet & time to get my lips, or muscles of mastication in order/shape); but so anyway! While I can't figure out how to write my own song(s), I can on occasion, occasionally fool some some of the time, enough to be mildly satisfied with the - or my - results... & that is good enough, I guess. Or even in the absence of (others' approval) if I am happy with it - the results - then that is all that matters. Interesting connection to depression, anxiety & suicidal thoughts. Is that when I do/go total dark, or blank, as in . . . practically catatonic. To the point where I can't speak, or hold a single conscious thought of any comprehension required of it: or so much as cross the street. To stare at a wall for all conscious hours would do more for me, probably, and be more productive than, cognitively speaking... staring at the TV. Like a Zombie, or something. But so anyway! My point in being -- that - when I am this way I almost never, and without fail, either do not play my guitar at all (it's just impossible, quite frankly sits/lays - lies - in the case like a coffin). Or~ I don't even have one to begin with and in the first place: for I have sold it out of money struggles, or much more often & frequently than that- 'to punish,' my^ self; for falling ill or into this deep dark pit of what ever you want to call it once again. That which becomes, each time you do it, a little bit longer to pull oneself out of. I believe the last "little," stretch made it about a year and a half. Which would have surpassed the previously held record, or personal best of more like one year. And so, oh? When you don't have that! That instrument to play, I have found and here is what it is, ok~ // you can't get it anywhere else. In other words, that thing or gift that it gives you. You can't replicate it - for me, anyway - by just listening to some music, or watching a movie, etc. That's the only thing that will do. And until you're able to get that 'Script again. Well, you're pretty well screwed. Or, at least I am...

 

[MuchToSay]

I have periods where i love music and can pay attention and catch all the different instruments in a piece and the nuances of momentary notes. I love those days! And I have periods where even my favourite pieces flood me, and seem way too intense. I’m trying something new now that uses music to help restore the ears after trauma. Basic version is that difficult experiences (old or recent) can cause the ears to block out certain frequencies, and this program helps the ears to hear those frequencies again. The way I understand it, if the ears can’t hear the frequencies where safety is communicated, it keeps is locked into to a state of feeling on-edge and unsafe, even if the circumstances have shifted. I just started this week, so it’s way too early to report, but I think it might be helping? They say the benefits really unfold over time, so I shouldn’t really be noticing much just yet anyway

 

[Citizen Insane]

I think music adds a lot to the day to day life and existence. There’s so much music to discover and look forward to, I feel.

I don’t really go outside without bringing my earphones for music and at home I have a cozy setup to spin vinyl records and such. Music is always there when I need it. I have listened to about 1100+ albums over the course of many years and I still go back to many of them, to re-experience and perhaps find new interpretations to an album. Going to live music (concerts ~) isn’t really my thing, but I don’t feel like I’m missing out - except maybe that I can meet new (like-minded) folk or share this hobby with someone.

I feel that I am missing a certain feeling or connection to what I’m experiencing for the past 14 years or so. I understand that listeners fatigue is a real thing and how the experience of new music to an individual changes over time.

To me it’s just that the decline in my mental health really got in the way and in the present day it takes a lot for music to trigger something emotionally for me. It just doesn’t feel quite the same as when I didn’t have mental health issues.

All in all, it’s still my #1 hobby of all time. Not a day goes by without listening to music in my life.

 

[MisterBGone]

i LOVE this idea for a thread! Thank you for starting it.

i grew up loving music. my father encouraged it beyond everything. my fondest memories are of him playing the guitar while i sang or played along on a xylophone or recorder until i was old enough for a more intense instrument and began to play violin. From there i taught myself piano (not very good) and a few other instruments, but couldn't get a handle on guitar. I have a wide array of instruments, both old and new... folk to band to... everything. i love ALL genres and ages of music.

Music to me is life, and i used to say i was music. Music pushed my heart to beat. It can change a mood, feeling, and even health. My 1st and foremost loved instrument of choice is voice. i wanted to get into children's psychology using music.

About 6 months ago i think, not sure as time has gotten away from me since September... i suddenly could not listen to music. i avoided stores and places i knew played music that i could hear. At work i turned it down if not off. Something "snapped" within me about music. However, recently, within the last week or so, i have been able to listen to music again, and i can't stop. i can't describe the feeling as to why or how i feel other than it's my escape.

Lastly, my children (all adults) are also heavily into music... however none are through vocal. My middle child is now a DJ and mixing music... with Tokyo Machine being the inspiration. (and is about to debut many personal songs at a local club)

It is an incredible form of creative expression, or just - expression, in general. . . I'm very glad that your father gave that gift to you! Don't worry, I can't handle the guitar, and it is my only instrument... I'm sorry you lost it, but that, it seems to have been regained? I think that fact that it functions on subconscious levels, as well, impacts us greatly and in ways that are sometimes hard to translate quite accurately. In other words, had we suddenly developed amnesia, but were able to then read back a bunch of handwritten words about how a particular song, let's say, by our favorite artist had made us feel. Would by reading that description, we even begin to understand what it was that was meant by those words which were derived &/or designed to express or interpret just that, ineffable or so it seems; highly intuitive, perhaps?~ ^_of a feeling!~*{:

 

[seabird]

I use music to recharge my spirit. After my brother died I could not listen to music without breaking down in tears, but I can now. He was from the age of 7, playing the piano, he was a gifted musician and played mostly his own music.

I know this sounds weird but I believe the earth sings in lots of different ways. We think of ourselves as being separate, but really we are not.