Music on the brain...

So I was driving home from my band rehearsal tonight thinking about quite a few things. I thought about why I only minored in music instead of majored, about how much I admire the musicians I know who are playing/teaching professionally now, and about how continuing to play music continues to feed me as an artist.

When I was playing in college, I always wanted to "hear" better...more specifically, when I was playing jazz/improvising. It blows me away that when I listen to a composition, I can be engulfed in the melody (and this is probably my problem), and then when it comes to any solos, it's like they start speaking a foreign language. I was always SO frustrated that I felt SO confident as a musician, but was never able to communicate in the language of improvisation. I'm not sure what my hang up was...perhaps I could never "let go" enough, or maybe I didn't put in enough hours listening - and I have to admit, that is one thing that I felt my public school education completely lacked. All through middle and high school, we would listen to a piece once or twice, and then play a ton, but it wasn't really ear training. I am MAD that my teachers didn't give assigned listening homework...it could have helped it many ways. Finally, in college, we would listen to a piece and then be expected to listen to it some more. I felt, and feel, that listening repeatedly to a piece as you are learning it ingrains it within you.

I love the connection I still feel with the music I play. I know that the music I know best is the music I have played or choreographed/danced to. I have gotten inside it, and it has gotten inside me. I am sad for young people who don't have this sort of connection with music. (I don't care if it is the pop music from their iPod or the classical music they learn on violin). I think, though, that it is one thing to listen to music, and quite another to experience it on deeper levels. To this day, when the soloists start up on the jazz channel, I have to admit, I sorta tune out, but I still wish I could speak that language.

I found a pretty cool piece tonight called Shirley's Blues from an album by trumpeter Kenyon Harrold. I like it a lot. Whether jazz, hip-hop, R&B, classical, world or pop, I like music that makes my mind wander to artistic places, music that makes me recall why I love music so much, and music that makes me want to be a better player. I am so glad I continue to play trumpet as an adult and that I still have music on my brain.