Guest Post – Music Has Always Been An Important Part of Life

You’ve probably heard the phrase “Music soothes the savage beast” several times in your life. Music definitely appears to be an important part of life in every human culture around the globe. A perfect example of that in Australia is the music of the Australian Aboriginal peoples.

Many public and private schools offer music classes to their students as part of their regular curriculum. Students and their parents often have to rent or purchase their student instruments in order to take those classes. Sometimes, if they are lucky enough, the school might be able to afford to have loaner instruments for the students to use to help them save the expense of renting or purchasing their instruments of choice.

Though it’s not Australia, my home city of San Francisco has much in the way of music education and I’ve always appreciated this. Sometimes parents will enrol their children in private piano lessons before they are old enough to take music lessons in school. Popular belief is that by learning to play the piano, the student will learn the basics of reading music, keeping proper tempo, and the importance of practising every day. 

The students will likely repeatedly hear their instructor say “How do you get to the Carnegie Hall? Practice, Practice, Practice.”

These are concepts that help a student to learn any musical instrument later in life.

Music isn’t just in the classroom, however. Music seems to be everywhere. Music plays in the shopping malls, the doctor’s offices, hospital waiting rooms, elevators.

Research done in the field of music therapy has been utilized to help businesses use music to keep the customers in a particular mood. Stores that cater to the adolescents or young adults often play music that is upbeat, encouraging the young customers to “get in a party mood” in which they might feel like dancing. This “party mood” helps to encourage the customers to feel good about spending money on the products in the store.

Doctor’s offices and hospital waiting rooms tend to use softer, mellower music, in an attempt to soothe the souls of the people waiting there. Nobody likes being in a doctor’s office or hospital waiting room, and the mellow music helps to lower the blood pressure and calm people down.

Churches will use music to inspire their congregations to worship in a particular way. Some churches use an upbeat tempo to get the congregation up on their feet and clap while “making a joyous noise unto the Lord” while others use a calmer tempo to have a more serene, sombre service.

Parents of a colicky baby will often learn that one of the best ways to soothe that little bundle of joy is by playing music and holding the baby while dancing to the music. Perhaps the music and the motion remind the baby of being in the womb.

Music can even be enjoyed by hearing impaired people. If the music is turned up load enough, the percussion beat will vibrate the floor and the hearing impaired can dance to the beat. Dancing to great music is always a great way to lift anyone’s spirits!

A world without music would be a very dreary world, don’t you agree?

This post is protected under copyright. SusankMann 2009 – 2014