Is History of Music Worth It?

by: Guest
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Word Count: 532

I recall when I first started studying the history of music, I did not know what I was getting into. I had a notion that music history was like a trivial pursuit. Honestly, I only followed my history of classical music class because I wanted the credits. I did not know how fully interesting music history is. You see, in our culture a lot of us do not actually study to comprehend music. For a lot of people, music is a language, but for us it is a thing that we consumed passively. When I began to study about the history of Western music, however, it changed all that for me. I have had some experience playing musical instruments, but I have never mastered one enough to really comprehend what music is all about. This class taughed me.

When the majority of us think about the music history, we think of the history of rock music. We presume that the history is simple because the music is simple. In fact, neither is the case. The history of music, whether you mean classical music, rock music, jazz music, or any other kind, is always complex. New chord structures are introduced bringing with them new forms of understanding humanity. New rhythmic patterns are introduced, bringing with them new methods of understanding time. And music shows all of it.

Even when the class was over, I could not stop learning about the history of music. It had stimulated my appetite, and I wanted more. I got all the music history volumes that I could locate. I even began to study forms of music that had not interested me before in the hopes of enhancing my musical knowledge further. When I was in college studying toward something very different - a degree in engineering - I had thought about giving it up and going back to get a degree in musicology. That is how much I am enthralled by the subject. If you never took a lesson in the history of music, you don't realize what you are missing out on. The CDs will never sound the same to you again. The whole thing will sound much more rich, much more bright, and much more important. A new song can be a sign of a new way of being, and a new way of imagining existence in the univers. This is what learning about the history of music would do to a lot of us.

If your job is musician, sooner or later you might have to do something kind of humiliating in order to pay the bills. A lot of musicians play for weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, or graduation and birthday parties. Others write songs for advertising and soundtracks. In my case, I pay the bills playing music in a cover band.

It is more difficult than you might think of. You have to be on top of the tastes of the bar people, and that can be tough. At first, I really ignore how to stay up to date. I looked at the top 40 music charts, figuring that that may be the best way to figure out what was in and what was not.

About the Author

Paul is a well known author and an Internet lover and likes to share information with other people. You can discover more about music and music and history infos at his website http://www.musicsongslyricsonline.com

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