I wholeheartedly believe in the power of music.
Music has always been an important part of my life. My family delighted in showing my brother and I the artists they grew up listening to, such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Frank Sinatra. Growing up, I vividly remember getting excited for long, family trips because it meant I could zone out, look out the window and listen to music on my iPod. For me, music was more than an outlet. Music was life.
I pursued my love for music further in high school. I was involved in the marching band and the concert band during high school, and found myself joining small leadership opportunities within the band program. While I loved playing music and the euphoric feeling I got from playing it, I found that I wasn’t very passionate about the musical environment I was in. I was dissatisfied with the piece selections and wasn’t motivated to practice outside of band class. My band teacher also had unreasonably high expectations for us, such as having all of us audition for the county band regardless if we had a busy after school schedule or not, and would unprofessionally vent his emotions and frustrations onto the class.
Despite the unsettling musical environment that I was in at the time, it was my involvement in the band program that helped me to appreciate music for what it is. I was introduced to basic music theory and came to understand why musicians like Beethoven and Bach are revered today; I came understand the subtle details of music, such as dynamics, instrumentation, time signatures, etc.
Today, I have come to the conclusion that music is my main outlet when it comes to emotions. I am very passionate about hip hop and the platform it gives artists to tell a story in vivid detail. Rappers like Joyner Lucas and NF amaze me because of their innate ability to tell a story through their lyrics rather than making songs that are surface level in terms of content and message.
Without going into too much detail, I went through a dark time during my freshman year at Penn State. My life seemed it would never be the same and I thought I would never find happiness again. But I started to rely on music as an outlet; music was my comforter in some of my darker moments- when I wouldn’t allow any of my friends or family to enter into my feelings.
If you went back in time 10 years ago and told me that music would save me from going into a really dark place, I wouldn’t have believed you. Back then, I listened to music simply because I liked it. But music gave me confidence and motivated me to continue when I was in a tight situation. In the future, I would love to play music more often. I’m a member of my Christian fellowship’s praise band and hope to “be on set” soon. I don’t claim to 100% understand music, and I don’t think I ever will. But I wish to continue to appreciate music for its instrumentation, lyrics, production/composition, etc. until the day I die.