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The importance of music in our lives.

In the Western McDonnell Ranges,(some 80 klms out of Alice Springs) one night in 2003, a strange sound emanated from a small plateau where a camper van was parked. If you had been a roaming aboriginal spirit or even an aboriginal you would have been smiling as the basic music (including a small dog chorusing) was made with a didjeridoo and two music sticks purchased at Uluru, the sacred rock of Australia's Red Centre. Some basic but enjoyable sounds accompanied this mixture. The voice of a man and woman could be heard having fun and that was the most important intrinsic moment of this event, which actually happened to Jane, my wife, and me and our little dog Adiel.

The importance of music in our lives cannot be underestimated, and from earliest times when man banged a bone on a rock or whistled through a piece of grass or a hollowed tree trunk, music has taken our brains into another realm. To put it succinctly, music is the language of all nations and the healer of all nations. Just imagine if all the world could seriously sing songs of peace and mean them. I told Don Henley, lead singer of the Eagles band, when I met him in Sydney in 2004, that I thought he had done more for world peace through his songs than any politician or religious leader of the last forty years, and I believe that to be true. All of the songs spawned in the sixties and seventies were about love and freedom and they were wholesome. Today's music should look for similar directions instead of being ego trips for the outlet of aggression.

When a child is born, the first happy responses usually come from musical communication such as songs and nursery rhymes. Clapping and banging in rhythm come naturally. Why, my own grandson Max, seems destined for the stage or a musical career the way he jumps round and dances to music; he loves it. Music creates a happy vibe and the flow of its language should show the world the way to live. If music does go down the other path of self destruction, then it is not going to make people smile and be happy. Music is there to take you on a trip away from your earthly worries and sometimes you can even identify with what the music is saying. Even to attempt to learn an instrument is a great joy. I have learnt about ten chords on the guitar, but to run them into some sort of music is relaxing and important. Where would the movies be without a musical score or accompaniment. They would be nothing, for it is the music which makes

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