Interesting point Rhodes.... I did the same with my kids way back - even before they were born I played a simple tune on a deep whistle for them - Mother's proposal... they also had to listen to the music I/we rehearsed i our house (more or less with their good will and these days they often refer to this as a great thing in their life ..... they´re both musicians themselfs so Im sure things like this Has a big influence on our kids.

 

Last edited: May 6, 2017

i was heavily mind oriented, efficient like a machine, extreemly useful to other people

this made my life a bit of a shitty expierience

The simplicity and joy of playing music made me interested in learning to express myself musically

Also changed quite a lot in the last few years since i started playing around with it, turns out im not a machine but simply human after all

 

Really ? Just saying, that maybe, just maybe, it isn't that McCartney can't sing but many people can't hear ?

 

the first time i heard electronic music (i was 6 ) I found a way to travel outer space. i never returned , now 32 years later it is still my best friend

 

When you doubt the meaning of music - what do you do then?

I do this:

I find the very best vinyl I have in my collection (the very best which describes my state of mind - there are many)

One could be Keith Jarrett - Still Live

Another could be stevie wonder - songs in the key of life

Yet another could be Sting - Nothing like the sun

Prince - 1999, Purple Rain, Around the world in a day, Parade and Sign O´the times

David bowie - nearly them all

J. S. Bach - Das wohltemperierte Klavier and sonatas and partitas for solo violin

Mozard - Requiem

And many others .... we have many good models when it comes to good music

 

Absolutely, but, there is just one small thing that sometime crosses my mind: "Is this a good thing ???" ...I mean, considering our level of knowledge of ourselves and our existence in general...

The results in my case:
- I now to play a few instruments
- I Love a descent amount of music genres
- I enjoy playing and constantly challenging my skills
- I love to play with fellow musicians
- The brain developed a bit differently than if I would not have played
...at the end You ask Your self, "OK, but was that so useful and good and did it gave mi so much in my life that I would like to pass it to my kid... ?

- It gave me a lot of fun and quality time
- It helped me to learn a lot of things not directly connected to music
- But it also consumed an enormous amount of time of my life, that could have been used on other domains with i suppose similar results, but maybe different paths...

Many perspectives are to be taken in consideration for a quality response to a quest like that...
I don`t feel competent enough to give a definitive opinion about that... it always depends on the point of view that You choose, and from which point of the human awareness You want to start to build some, at least plausible arguments.

(If you for example are aware that You have no idea about anything concerning Your existence or function, and You choose to start from there to build an argument, than, very few things do make sense, and You inevitably allways come to the same and only consequential and frustrating answer "since You don`t know what are doing, don`t touch anything, so You do not do damage... leave it as is and let that "something" that understands how all this works, take care of thing...

Of course, if You start from a point where You are aware that You should just conform to the common cultural dogmas and teachings, or religions from all around the world, than You can start to give some kind of "virtual" sense to some arguments concerning our quest, but of course, they will be based on those dogmas that are a not very convincing to hold a sane argument... and besides, that way You will find thousands of arguments pro and con...

Science is sadly also based on concepts that hang in mid air... there is too little information we can use and too much information that we are not aware of, to be able to reach a satisfiying statement... and besides, history have prooven that science "facts" change too often to be taken really seriously... in how many years we went from an elephant to a globe... how many scientific fact have been disprooved, and so on...
Scinece give us some clues that we can use to build ourself in our understanding, a sense of the space we are in and give us a few usable hints on how to interact with it. But it sadly doesn`t explain how thing should be or really are, nor gives us any definiteve directions for the quest we have)

A really too complex argument

 

Imagine if you will a hyper intelligent life form from another galaxy or dimension discovering earth and thinking "oh this looks interesting let's check it out". As they near our planet the beauty of earth, sky and clouds open up to reveal continents and oceans, plains and jungles and desert … a wondrous thing. Finally they draw close enough to see man and his place and it all … children working in caustic open pit mines, tar sands and oil spills killing all manner of fauna, an island of garbage floating through the Pacific, the ravages of war as poison gases unleashed by one clan choke another clan to death...

They confront us on our actions, asking what we have contributed to existence on this planet in all our history but vile greed, desecration, intolerance and ignorance? What have we done but treat each other with contempt, and the earth like our beaten and cowering bitch, ignorantly believing she would remain subservient to our deluded supremacy for all time? What have we done that is of any worth within the grand scheme of things? There is no answer from our "great leaders". Finally an investment banker speaks up "we've created a free market of trade whereby ..." Vaporizing the banker before he can finish his sentence one of the intergalactic visitors quips "the illusion of such you mean?"

As our visitors consider freeing the earth of the scourge of humanity a teenage misfit offers up the only human activity that seems to matter to teenage misfits, "we make music . . . "
"And what is music?" they skeptically demand. Unable to adequately agree on a definition in words we simply play them music ... classical, jazz, rock, electronic, local folk music from all over the world ... They can't get enough. Alight with wonder and ecstasy they demand more and more. Shockingly the theme from Dallas causes such exultation that many of the visitors cream their proverbial pants. It becomes evident that there's no accounting for intergalactic tastes.

"You have harnessed partical vibrations and turned them into feelings, wonders, aspirations, fears ... all the myriad experiences of existence ... so that the listener might understand all that cannot be expressed with the clumsiness of words. While this appears to be the only thing of any value whatsoever that you have achieved in all your existence here on earth, in essence through the beauty of your music you have created magic, so we shall spare you."

With the gift of two 1200's and a large collection of rat-eared vinyl they depart. Out of our earshot they chuckle, "those idiots are going to destroy themselves anyway..."

 

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Officially recognized by the Ministry Of Silly Walks, I guess?

 

I love what you said, particularly the re-discovering that music, when we work with certain musical frequencies, can be used to heal (and cause hysteria and anger, ergo the effect that some Rock and rap has on some people, but that's a long story), change brainwave activity, move things, and sound may even have been at the centre of creation itself.

 

I know a fellow bass player when I see one

 

Im perfectly fine, thank you.

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 6, 2017

I was really really young when I started rapping. Too young to be making any kind of conscious decision about the direction of my life. I just loved doing it. Me and my brother made ridiculous, crappy songs as squeaky little kids on a Playskool recorder over Snoop Dogg beats when I was... well, young enough to be using a Playskool recorder. When I was 12 I found a message board where people were doing battle raps... this was way before 8 mile. From then till I was about 16 or 17 there were tournaments with prizes and some of the very first examples of "internet famous" rappers. I got a mic to participate and that's how I started recording

When I got a little older I was doing the whole... "work a boring job/strive toward a better paying but even more boring job/be a good little contributor lifestyle and not thinking about music much. Someone close to me died a few years ago and I kind of had a revelation that living an average life and not chasing after what you really want to do is stupid and pointless. So now I work really hard on my music.

 

I pretty much had musical inspirations flowing through my veins since I was a very little child (think 2 years old). When I was 3 years old I made my doctor quit her job because I was dancing and singing on her desk all the time and I wouldn't let no one stop me. No punishment was enough to convince me to not do it every single god damn visit lol. I started writing my own music when I was around 6 or 7 years old.
Growing up I didn't have a lot of friends in school. I had quite a few acquaintances that I could have turned into friends. The problem is, I simply didn't know how to back then. I didn't have any social skills so music was my way of expressing my feelings. When I was 13, my grandmother passed away and then 2 months later, I came home from school to see my aunt being wheeled out on a stretcher with a tarp over her. She had a fatal OD. For the following 6 months after that I had lost about 5 more relatives and then my cat, who was given to me to help with my anxiety and was my only true friend at the time, passed away from pet food poisoning.
On my 14th birthday (2007), I decided to learn to play guitar and keyboards. So my parents bought me a nice Squire Stratocaster and I put it in my hands for the first time, and I'd already felt like I was on top of the world. It made me feel slightly alive again. I dusted off my Casio CTK-411 keyboard from 1998 and learned to play keyboard on that. I had a tutor come over and give me lessons.
On June 18th, 2007 I recorded a comedic album of me making fun of current pop song trends by slamming the keyboard and mumbling stupid lyrics. I put it together into a compilation and called it "Now that's what I call annoying bullshit! Vol. 1" (a take on the "Now that's what I call music!" series lol). I never released it.
By 2009, I had recorded my first full length studio album that sounded slightly professional.
I had tried taking my own life numerous times but one of the only things that has ever saved me was songwriting.
Flash forward to today, I will turn 24 years old in just 11 more days (the 18th). I am currently working on my 18th studio album which I am hoping to have finished by August if my time permits considering I have college and 2 jobs to deal with. And when I look back now on everything I have been thru and everything that has come about it, I think to myself "damn I'm a lucky man lol" But somehow I still find the irresistible urge to complain all the time. LOL!

 

I didn't choose music – music chose me.

 

once I heard this.. I knew.. there was no turning back...

​

 

Thats your desission Rhodes. No one else can make that choice for you.

Life´s full of choices. Every time you make one choice you deselect millions of other choices - thats life.

If you want a life Which is based on scientific evidence you´ll have to accept the fact that everything is predetermined and therefore totally beyond your influence. You can also choose to believe that things and events happen randomly and without your control.

I would choose something between these two positions. Not because it's necessarily the truth, but because it gives me greater freedom in my way of thinking and living my life.

 

Great thread!! I chose music because it's the only way to truly express myself In a way I can explain to others how I was feeling at the moment I wrote a peice at a point of time. Music I feel is and always will be the only universal language that everyone can understand.

Music is a feeling it gives someone more than just noises made from an instrument.

 

As a child, I wasn't exposed to music very much. None of my close relatives had any connection with music, it was no sooner than at the age of 8 I consciously asked my mother to enroll me in elementary music education. And even then the road was bumpy, I had lots of interests at that time, and computers dominated. When I was 15, there was a paradigm shift and I started to focus on music more. Some of my first compositions come from that era. Still, there were tons of other interests so music couldn't get much air time, but it slowly grew on.
Finally at the age of 18, I started playing more instruments than just piano, first it was Duduk, Shvi, then Recorders, Classical Guitar and I enrolled in singing lessons. At 19, I discovered AudioSEX and that one could make music on PC not only by bashing notes to Finale. 2011-2013 were my pioneer years with full-fledged composition.
Then year later, the enthusiasm started to decline, I could not convince myself to make more than a few tracks a year. Everything started to sound the same, total burn-out, and nothing was quite perfect as I like it to be. 2016 was all time low, the year in which I didn't finish even one single track.
However, my New Year resolution was to invest most of my free time to music and since 10th January I work every day on my projects, when it's possible. Doesn't matter how much work is done every day, just that some effort is put into it repeatedly.
I started listening to several more genres, got myself a breath controller and took up ear trainings and Pianomarvel.

During those time of burn-out I listened a lot of music, but it just wasn't the same as playing along with it. That's where the enjoyment lies for me, and what pushed me towards starting once again.
It's a solitary way of living, I don't have anyone to discuss ideas with, only small listener base. With the exception of, well, you guys.

Now after all these lines I forgot to answer the question. Music is different form of communication, enveloping far more than words can ever hope to carry. It's science, yet it plays on emotions. It's universal language, yet it depends on so many factors to understand it correctly. It permits so many ways one can express themselves, the right question you should be asking is Why wouldn't you choose music?

Thanks for this thread, it's cherry on top to read other experiences and take the inspiration from those stories.

 

Last edited: May 7, 2017

I didn't choose music - music chose me. I'm merely a medium.