Discove The Importance Of History Of Music

By Author: Paul Zayer
Total Articles: 63
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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 took my history of classical music class because I wanted the credits. I did not know how fully captivating music history could be. You see, in our culture a lot of us do not really learn to understand music. For much of the world, music is a language, but for us it is something that we consumed passively. When I began to learn about the history of Western music, though, it changed all that for me. I have had some experience playing musical instruments, but I have not mastered one enough to really understand what music is all about. This class showed me.

When the majority of us think about the music history, we think of the history of rock music. We believe that the history is plain because the music is plain. In fact, neither is the case. The history of music, whether you're talking about classical music, rock music, jazz music, or any other kind, is always complex. New chord structures are established carrying with them new forms of understanding ...
... the world. New rhythmic patterns are introduced, carrying with them new methods of understanding time. And music reflects all of it.

Even when the class was over, I would not stop learning about the history of music. It had whetted my appetite, and I wanted more. I got all the music history books that I could find. I even began to explore forms of music that had not interested me before in the hopes of increasing my musical understanding further. Although I was in school studying toward a very different subject - a degree in engineering - I had thought about quitting and going back to get a degree in musicology. That is how much I am captivated by the issue. If you never took a course in the history of music, you do not know what you are missing out on. The radio will never sound the same to you again. Everything will seem much more rich, much more luminous, and much more important. A new song can be a sign of a new way of being, and a new way of imagining life in the world. This is what learning about the history of music signifies to a lot of us.

If your occupation is musician, sooner or later you will have to work into something kind of humiliating in order to be able to pay the bills. Many musicians play for weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, or graduation and birthday parties. Others create songs for commercials and soundtracks. In my case, I am able to pay the bills playing music in a cover group.

It is tougher than you would think of. You have to stay on top of the tastes of the bar people, and that can be tough. At first, I really ignore how to keep being up to date. I looked at the top 40 music charts, thinking that that must be the best method to figure out what was in and what was not.

Paul is a well known author and an Internet enthusiast and really enjoys sharing his passion with you. You can learn more about music and music and history news at his website http://www.musicsongslyricsonline.com