Escape
Everybody needs an escape. Day-to-day life, the drudgery of work, the busy times with a family, and much more can take their toll on you. Music is a great way to escape into your own private space for a while.
I teach music to students of all ages. One of the great things about studying music is the ability to use your study to escape from ordinary life for a while and get totally enveloped in something else. I was working with a student today on a piece of music and talked about how there is much more in music than just the notes and rhythms. The notes and rhythms are on the very surface of the study of any piece regardless of genre or difficulty. The dynamics, articulations, tempi, phrasing and interpretation is always there waiting for us to bring them out. That is where the real music is. That is where you can “lose yourself” in the study of music and escape for a while.
It takes a vast amount of concentration to go beyond the notes and rhythms and begin to play Music. Eastern (European) music education would have students tack on dynamics, articulations, etc. after the notes and rhythms are learned. Western (USA) music education is more likely to have students study everything, all the elements of performance, concurrently – the big picture, if you will. In either fashion of learning you sooner or later get the opportunity to lose yourself and become totally absorbed in what you are doing.
I have been learning cello for 13 months now, and I find that I can get totally engrossed in my study immediately simply because there is so much going on. From intonation to bowing to phrasing, not to mention reading the music, there is enough to take me far away into the study. I blink and it’s been about 45 minutes since I began practicing. The ringing of the telephone sometimes disturbs me, but I can get right back into the depths of study in a few minutes.
Music education, at any level or at any age, can be an amazing and rewarding escape. After the time is done and you are back into normal life you may feel displaced for a moment, but the result is that all the cobwebs have been cleaned from your brain hole. And everyone needs their brain hole cleaned once in a while. Use music.
