The Marvels Of Music

 

  Music is something that impacts us all one way or another. Listening to it while studying or on a car ride, or wherever, it has profound impact on humanity as a whole and to the individual. There have been various clinical studies to showcase how music can affect the brain in many positive ways and how certain types of music maybe beneficial in certain types of scenarios such as for focus and memory improvement. 

  The author showcases how music has impacted his life by describing walking through many deserted and ghost town-esque streets of the Bronx, saying how various blocks would be seemingly abandoned yet he would still hear the sound of hip-hop. Westmore talks about how hearing hip-hop was a certain awakening for representation for him. Hip-hop has its roots in African-American culture and has been popularized by the African-American community as such. More sees this as representation for the black community and as well as himself as an individual. As Moore describes, “ Hip-hop had begun to play a special role in my life. It wasn't just music and lyrics. It was a validator. In my struggle to reconcile my two worlds, it was an essential asset. By the late 1980s, hip-hop had graduated from being the underground art of the Bronx to a rising global culture” (Moore, 59). He describes how it is an emotional validation and representation for him when listening to that music feeling seen and listen to rather than just heard.

  In my experience with music as someone who is studying it, I can definitely say it has had a profound impact on me ever since the start of my life. Having grown up, listening to various genres of music, I have been able to tell for a long time, what kind of music I like whether it’s a specific genre song or whether I want to try something new and see how it affects me. I tend to use music as my main way of expressing my emotions and letting it describe how I feel. Depending on my emotion will dictate what kind of songs I may sing to myself when alone or what type of music I might play on the piano. I also use this emotion to write my very own musical, which can be a rather daunting task, however, the emotional payoff makes it all the more worth the hassle. Music is my main outlet for emotion and is one of the main reasons why I love writing it so much. One of my goals as a performer and a composer is to have an audience feel and learn what I want them to feel and learn, but also for them to have their own emotional and intellectual takeaways from what I write. I want to get my points across while also giving them the liberty of feeling what they choose to feel and interpreting what they take away from my work.

  Additionally, growing up in the Jewish community, music is a very important part of my religion. Many of our prayers are set to certain melodies to showcase what the prayer is about and why we have that prayer. A major key is a key in music that sounds happy, whereas a minor key is a key in music that has a sad sound to it. Many Jewish prayers are in minor keys, even if they have an upbeat tempo in a less formal setting, usually as an underlying statement and testament to the suffering many Jews have endured over thousands of years. In a prior session, melodies are learned very quickly and easily our memorized, as they are very common in the religion and are used vastly throughout the Jewish religion. It is this use of music as a form of religious expression that has also helped shape my love for music as well as the inner workings of music. There is a very important prayer in my religion called the Sh’ma, which is usually in a major key. On the most important and holy day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur, also known as the day of atonement, this is some in what sounds like a minor key. This is done likely to showcase how on the most important day of the Jewish year, even one of the most important prayers will change. I had understood this connection not too long ago, being told it by the staff at my temple and have been thinking about it a lot ever since. I think it’s beautiful how music is you is so strongly in a religious context as well as an emotional context. When Jewish children become indoctrinated as an adult in the Jewish community. They have what is known as a Bar Mitzvah (for boys) or a Bat Mitzvah, the full and gender-neutral term being B’nai Mitzvah. For my bar mitzvah, I remember having to learn and memorize all of the melodies for all of the prayers, most of which are sung, and read in Hebrew, And how beautiful they all sounded. The Torah is a scroll in the Jewish religion that tells the history of Judaism, and whenever someone becomes a B’nai Mitzvah, they read a part of it known as the Torah portion. I remember how my rabbi was telling me about the melody within my tour portion and how many parts of it connect within the piece, many of the melodies resolving and looping back within my portion. Though my memory is rather fuzzy on that given it was almost 10 years ago, I do remember her saying such. I always thought that it was such a beautiful thing to happen and love how music is important in so many aspects of my life that I love.

  Overall, music has a strong hold in the lives of many, whether it is representation for a minority community, or an emotional vessel to an individual. This is why we listen to music when we work out or on long commute or when needing to focus. It is also being shown in many clinical trials that music has various benefits to the human mind and memory. Classical music has been proven to increase focus, and it has been proven very thoroughly that the human brain can memorize and pick up on patterns very easily, one of which is Music. It is easier to memorize things when they are set to music and even patience with Alzheimer’s disease have been shown to retain muscle memory when listening to familiar music even if from very long ago. It is a beautiful thing in so many aspects that thankfully has a period of benefits to us all, especially in an ever-changing world. Music has been that reliable threshold for thousands of years and proves itself as such in very simple profound ways.

The following is a video of a former ballerina with Alzheimer’s who retains muscle memory of choreography from decades ago that is reawakened when listening to the music she danced to: https://youtu.be/owb1uWDg3QM