Why do you enjoy music?

Why do we listen to music? Is it to analyze the melodic and harmonic relationships between intervals, chords, and scales? Do we dissect the skeletal structure of the music by determining its form, its shape, or its color? Do we theorize about the intricacies and exploration of the relationship between the composition and the composer who gave birth to their composition and openly invited us into their musical universe? Do we proclaim musical genius, divine inspiration, or musical mayhem when discussing musicians and the mode by which their creations take form, and how they come into existence and obtain a permanent place in the history of music? Music is more than pitches vibrating at varying frequencies and passing through the air in successive sound waves as they hit our fine tuned ears . It is more than measurable and calculated decibels that dissipate and delight our eardrums. Music can be found in any object at anytime. Think of the following items and determine for yourself how each makes music:

a Bird - a Rock - a Tree - a Seashell - the Wind - a Trash can - a Dump Truck - Water, etc.

Each of these makes music in its own individual way. We could add more to the list. In fact, the list is endless. How we view music is primarily based on our own personal preferences. Some have biases toward music because of their upbringing. Others have dedicated themselves and their time to learn an instrument and their musical attention tends to focus more on music played on the instrument they have learned, in part, because of their feelings toward the instrument they have grown to enjoy so much.

Others feel loyal to musicians, music genres, lyrics, etc. because they have made a connection along the way. Regardless of how we personally feel about music, music is not the end result. Music remains incomplete until we complete the composers' compositions. You see, it is up to us to attach value to the music. The music does not exist on its own - independent of our existence. For the music to "come alive" and "become a part of us", we must make the music our own. We add value to the music by attaching our feelings or what we feel, to the music we hear. It is a culmination of the process whereby we personally express our experiences or receive and relate to the experiences others share with us - whether they are physical, mental, emotional, financial, spiritual, logical, rational, irrational, etc., by opening our ears, our minds, and our hearts to the music before us.

As we open our ears a little more to hear the music around us, our minds will be enlightened and our hearts will be touched. We will enjoy the music of a baby crying, a dog barking, a child yelling, or a horn honking. As we train our ears, our minds, and our hearts to listen to others, we will then understand that music is made by listening not just with our ears, but with our minds and our hearts.

Written by Jerald M. Simon
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