Don't let the title fool you, listening to classical music can actually be great for you (weird right!?). There is plenty of pop, hip-hop, jazz and other genres of music out there that's good, but it doesn't do the wonders the classical music can do.
Being a self-taught musician I used to have a distaste for classical music, putting it off as "boring" or "too long." But once I got involved in singing and playing piano (at somewhat of a late age mind you), my thoughts decided to take a u-turn for the better. I started listening to more and more of this music and now my thoughts were "Oh this stuff is really good" and I mean really good. I first started listening to it while doing my homework everyday when I come from school. It would keep me focused on the task at hand and it would seem like my homework wouldn't take so long to do (unfortunately it still took about the same 30 minutes it usually takes). After that I soon progressed to listening to it in my leisure time, and then moving on to almost all the time whenever I get the chance. Classical music is the genre of music that can take listeners on a complete roller coaster ride. There are times when it can be super emotionally charged, one example being Mozart's stunning Requiem Mass. Other times, it can be powerful and very rhythmic driven such as Beethoven's monumental 9th Symphony and Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. All of these pieces have something common; unity.
Music can do something that really nothing else can do and this is to bring people together. Just recently I had the amazing opportunity to sing Mozart's Requiem in Carnegie Hall in New York City on June 13th with my Chamber choir. The day before the concert, the choir received news of the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting and what events have been taking place just a few states down south from where we were. On the night of concert, our performance of the Requiem was dedicated to the victims in Orlando. That night, between the audience, the director, and the choir members, there were no walls dividing us. We gathered together to sing and listen to some very powerful music that touched our hearts, especially mine. My emotions ran quite high, as well as everyone else's and I soon found myself tearing up at some of the most sensitive and emotionally driven parts of the piece. When music can touch someone enough to bring them to tears you know the composer or someone was doing something right in the process. If you ever get the chance to hear or sing a classical music concert, say yes. Don't deny it because you think it's not for you or it's too long. Say yes, and take chance that could possibly change your life for the better.
