There is one common language for the world, whether we are aware of our fluency or not. There is one communal religion that each of us is a believer in, whether we realize we are practicing it or not. There is one shared family that we are all generationally tied to, whether we can trace it through our lineages or not. This one thing, however, is not a single entity at all. This one thing is a compilation of many, a genre made of stories, an era made of artists, a song made of notes. Music, despite differentiations in sound and verse, is a common experience. It is the one thing that can completely transcend the global divisions and instrumentally drive a transition from thought into feeling. The invocation of music is that it is for all and does not separate based upon preference.
While our grandparents may have listened to Sinatra and our peers end up at EDM festivals, we are all part of the celebration of a feeling that we are chasing simply by being caused to feel something bigger than ourselves. We fall in love with music because it is a universal experience. It connects us with something larger that we cannot put into words, it takes us out of our minds, it puts us into the now. The same high that many chase, whether from a drug or a spiritual experience or adrenaline, is found in a composition of notes, the sound waves of a guitar solo, the heartbeat of percussion. Music is a history that rewrites itself anew each day with the new creations that today's minds, guided by all the minds before, bring into fruition. Music has no single country of origin, no single language, no single genre; but rather, it is a commonality between all humans. Even those with hearing impairments can feel music as it vibrates. Music may very well be the purest form of connection we have been able to find in the progression of humanity: a connection of notes, a connection of people to make a band ensemble, a connection of strangers in a concert crowd all believing in the same thing.
Upon asking several musicians and discovering what it is about music that inspires them to continue a path of this melodic creativity, I learned more than ever just how influential sound could be. A dear friend of mine and extremely talented musician named Benjamin accounted that, "Music is sort of the ultimate level of mindfulness that [he has] ever managed to achieve. [...] It's not even muscle memory necessarily, but more of just being so in sync with what you are playing that all the right notes just fly out. You pretty much lose focus on everything except for the music and it's really the only time that [he] can say that [he] use[s] 100 percent of [his] available brain power to do a single thing. And because of that, it can get very emotional. When you're feeling it, you don't really have any inhibitions, and whatever you're feeling at the time is what comes out through your instrument."
This kind of flux is seen in many forms of art. The ancient practice of yoga even comments on this "flow," as neuroscientists term it, in the recognition of "samadhi," which is simply the sensation of being so enveloped in the present moment that you do not even realize time is passing. That is the fullness of the now. That is the ultimate mindfulness. That is the fullness of feeling music, as time progresses and you are experiencing each note of a tune that takes place in a real time that you are not even thinking about as the notes take you on a journey.
An additional friend of mine, a beautifully gifted musician and music therapy student named Elizabeth, summarized her love for music with a Joni Mitchell quote. Mitchell speaks that, "Freedom to me is a luxury of being able to follow the path of the heart, to keep the magic in your life. Freedom is necessary for me in order to create, and if I cannot create I don't feel alive." Elizabeth's perspective on music is centered on this idea, as to her, music is "an intense exertion of creativity and passion and feeling." In her explanation of music, it is almost effortless to see how important of a place music can occupy; after all, is it not creativity and passion and feeling that we all seek out in our daily lives in all that we do? Are our lives not accumulations of passion that drive us to become our fullest selves? The fantastical, mesmerizing thing about music is that this feeling is not simply reserved for those who make music. This feeling is accessible for all who have ears to listen, for all who have bodies to feel vibrational entities of sound, for all who dare to let music take over their souls and alter their ways of emotional sensation, whether for the duration of a song or for a lifetime.
A music virtuoso named Austin, that I have been lucky to get to know and hear perform recently, explained music to me as "hitting a part of [him] nothing else can. It is part of the human experience and always has been, just growing and developing. For example, the outlet for the African American struggle changing from blues to jazz to hiphop. Rhythm is the best part and the center of all music and it is the first thing you hear even before you are born, as your mother's heartbeat, and the last thing you hear before you die, your own heartbeat. It is inherently human. It is also an interactive art that you can sing to, play to, dance to. Most importantly, music allows you to say things that cannot be put into words." Music is the language of the unsaid. It is the language of the felt. It is the evolving force outside of humanity that also lets humans play with it each day and learn something new. Whether a child learning to play their first instrument in a beginner music class or a performer in an orchestra, each individual affected by music is joining a story that is constantly changing and being performed. All that music asks, in return, is to be heard.
In asking multitudes of individuals what their experiences of music are, I've learned that each person on this planet embraces and loves and connects with music in a different way. While it is this grand power that is one within us all and makes all of us feel something big and unworldly, it is a sound that can be heard an infinite amount of ways. Music is a song that never ends and is eternally being written. Music is a melody in endless octaves and is performed each day for new ears. Music is the soundtrack of the human experience. Music is what it sounds like to be alive.
