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 the scene come to life. Music stirs the emotions and touches our hearts. Anything that can do that is very important in a world which shows us so much tragedy through the television screen.
Music is in nature if you listen. Why, there's even a song in the wind, or the waves crashing on the shore and the birds are the best example of song that the Great Creator has given us. There is music in the underwater as the whales communicate with each other and even the lions roar on the Serengeti is music to some ears. A little dog barking or talking is music to it's owner's ears. To go into outer space there is music of a different realm; a sort of vibration that has been called the music of the spheres. Oh yes, the whole of the Universe is held together with a fine balance of vibrational music.
Music is one of the most important influences in our lives and the more we can tune into it the better for the healing of the planet. Why as the eagle screeches overhead, the elephant is doing the same and the seals are talking, as well as the penguins in the Antarctic. The whole world of movement is accompanied by one of nature's sounds. So whatever you like, be it classical, or rock, or jazz, or reggae, or rap, or just the sound of the birds in the morning, soak in every note. For it is like medicine and will make you healthy and if everyone is like this, there will be peace on earth through music. As they say, seek and you shall find, listen and you will hear.