This is going to be a short blog because... I am about to rush away and make music! You might ask "what is so special about live music?
The vision, the sounds, the texture, the feeling, the emotional, physical, focused, creative, momentary experiential - there is more too! The multi-sensory, the connection, observation, learning, memorable... Making music is momentary, creative, sociable, special and incredibly powerful.
Live music stops us in our tracks. It gets us out of our screens and into the real. It moves our bodies and connects our thoughts with what we experience in a way that online music simply cannot. It empties scrambled brains, clears foggy heads, releases physical tension, relaxes our mood, brings us together and helps us to make sense of things, and often, ourselves.
2024 has for me, been intense with the parlous state of live music, the constant fighting to justify our existence and reasoning for grassroots venues, for a space where living music can come together, in an industry which so many take for granted, just because it is there. The 'here today, gone tomorrow' for grassroots venues hovers constantly, and with terrifying statistics (Music Venue Trust Report 2024). One can be forgiven thinking that no-one really cares.
But we do. We all do. I do. I care enormously for live music as an intrinsic experience for learning, social bonding, communication and essentially for the spirit of life itself. Whole communities come together in experiential celebration - the old, the babies, the young, the youth, the disabled; the tall, the short, large and lean, the angry, joyful, busy, lazy, those in good health, those in hospital or just plain sad. And here's the thing; these 'making music' communities is made up of many who cannot read a note or play an instrument. Everywhere, anytime people, children and babies are out there dancing, singing, tapping a drum and creating music when no-one is watching, waiting or applauding. Music is a living force.
Music House for Children's ethos is to nurture learning and life skills through musical experiences. This cannot be achieved with a button! Even babies explore instrumental play, the sounds, the shape and different instrumental textures. They bounce sounds off each other, they interact with their loved adult, create rhythmical sounds in response, and engage in shared music making that no-one has written down or given instructions. There is just an invitation, the space, their bodies, voice, instruments and their community. A chance to express, to experience and to be in the moment. In my view performing is as important as learning. Our children's instrumental concert on Sunday 23rd June will give families and children the chance to listen, play, experience and engage together. Music is a moment. Those moments for many are rarely forgotten and in themselves, provide rich anecdotes for families to recall years later.
I don't remember any online musical moments. Do you? But I always remember live, authentic musical moments. They impact on that time, the people around, the children, the space and my day. Living musical moments are fabulous. Make Music Day for me, is every day, all year round!
Keep playing, join in and sing with all your might - wherever you are.
Happy Make Music Day today!
Music House Courses
Music House Resources
Instruments | Songs | Podcast | Animated story tales
Music House for Children
Emma Hutchinson
June 2024
Komentarze