Have you ever woken up one morning and just thought to yourself about how much different your life might be without one particular aspect that means the world to you? Or if you hadn't made that one decision to try something new that later became part of your whole life, what would have happened without it? I'm a person with a lot of feelings that likes to think about things like this, so I apologize for the sappiness, but for me, this is the concept of music and being a musician. When I listen to a really amazing musician, it's the type of thing that puts me in awe, tickles my spine, and raises the hairs on my arms — it's what makes my life more interesting and meaningful.
There was one day when I was nine years old and I decided that I wanted to play the violin. I didn't know why, I just thought it might be fun and it sounded like the coolest thing to me at the time. My small, nine-year-old self of course didn't realize that I was making one of the most important decisions that I would ever make in my life. Choosing to play the violin brought me into the world of being a musician. Obviously it took me a long time to understand what that means exactly, but sitting here writing this about 10 years later, it's one of the most important characteristics of who I am. (Pat on the back to nine-year-old me, for knowing what I would need to do). My musicality doesn't stop there. I've also been singing probably since I learned how to speak, but I didn't take it too seriously until high school and now it's also incredibly important to me — maybe even more so than violin nowadays.
Music itself is a form of expression unlike anything else and that's what makes it so powerful — you really can't compare it to a lot of things. That's why listening to it serves as a type of therapy for a lot of people, myself included. But the act of physically being able to create it is a different type of emotion, experience, and therapy all together. My friends at school know that making music is an incredibly important stress reliever for me and definitely helps me keep my head on my shoulders when times become harder. There are several times in a week where I will drop everything I'm doing, go to the performing arts building, find a piano and just sing for an hour. It helps me to release a lot of built up emotions that can't be expressed or worked through in any other way — music is what works for me.
However, being a musician very rarely only involves one person. Even in a band with a lead singer there has to be someone on guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, etc. and that gives you a way to connect with other people through music--a way to connect with them on a deeper level. Creating music with other people is a type of feeling that really can't be properly described without experiencing it first-hand. When I sing with other people, or I play one of the songs I've memorized over the years on violin, it gives me just a few minutes where I'm in perfect connection with the other person(s). You're working together to create the same beauty, but because you're making it with someone else it's automatically much more complex than you could possibly manage on your own. It gives you a chance to share your passion with someone who knows exactly what I'm talking about when I say I can't actually explain it.
With all of that being said, being a musician has so many more layers than just the music. The people you meet through making music are people that you will cherish for the rest of your life. When you share the power of what making music with other people can do, it's not something either of you will forget and it brings you closer. Outside of my immediate friend group, the vast majority of my other closest friends are my music friends and I mean that in quite a general sense.
Most of my friends in high school were in my orchestra, but specifically, we played the same instrument and the same part of the composition. We played the same things, we went through the same struggles when we couldn't get a certain part, and experienced the feeling of utter excitement and accomplishment when someone finally got that particular measure that we'd been struggling on all week. Some of my best memories and greatest accomplishments in life have had my violin under my chin and a lot of my closest friends around me performing the same song I was.
This was our Halloween Concert my Senior Year
In college, apart from my immediate friend group, the majority of my other friends that are decently close to me are involved in the same music group(s) that I am. Specifically this is the a cappella group I'm in. A group of us get together twice a week to sing, and this group has created a safe space for me on campus — a place I am able to go and completely be myself without the fear of judgement. I know I could count on any of them if I ever needed anything, they could count on me for the same, and that within itself is reassuring for me. Along with my group specifically, I have made a lot of friends through the other two a cappella groups on campus. It's been amazing to see how this style of music was able to bring me to some of the people that would be the most important in my life. We all have different interests outside of a cappella, so it's interesting to consider the idea of where we would be if someone decided to not audition one year. A cappella has given me a community within the community that my small school already has, and that provides me a space to cater to my musical side and my social side.
Music saves my life each day. It brought me a way to truly express and release built-up emotion that I wouldn't be able to do any other way. It gave me a way to connect with people that share the same type of talent and passion because that is what makes it truly remarkable and so much fun. Without music, my life would have very little purpose and I promise I am not exaggerating.
