music, brain, heart

"Many people who love music profess to know nothing about it."

Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain On Music

I have taken multiple music classes at UCSD, most of them are "appreciation" courses such as Western Music and Jazz Music. What surprised me was that all these courses have no pre-requisites; as long as the students like music, they can sign up for the course.

We are experts in what we like, whether it be food, drink, or music. A fervent Hip Hop fan can immediately tell the difference between Kanye West's tunes from Jay-Z's; a Classical music lover can distinguish the styles of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. However, they do not necessary KNOW music--in some ways, their knowledge of "music" is only at a superficial level. These music fanatics know the songs they like, yet they cannot tell the notes and the chords being played bar by bar.

What fascinates me about music is not just the technical side, but how it can pierce through our hearts within seconds, and a song, whether with lyrics or not, can comfort the right people at the right moment. Music transcends its notes, chords, and instruments to another level that bring love, joy, hope, sadness, anger, or even peace. It is almost supernatural. Music brings people together, and we do not have to know all the chords played in the Star Spangled Banner in order to sing out our inner patriots. As the time goes on, the means with which we listen to (or obtain) music will change, but the human longing for music to fill their hearts will stay the same.

jw