What is music?

Some questions for you:

• What is music?

• Does it have to be created in your mind first?

• Does it have to be on purpose?

• Does it exist outside of hearing?

• Does it have to have a purpose?

• Does it have to express emotion?

• Does it have to express anything?

• Can it exist in other ways?

• Can it come from other sources?

• Can any sound be made into it?

• Does it have to be able to be broken down and analyzed?

• Does it have to have form?

• Does it have to be able to be written down?

• Does it have to be physically heard in order to exist, or can it just exist in the mind?

• And lastly, why do you make music?

It’s fascinating to break the definition of music down by asking all of these questions.

We are clearly obsessed with it - and by ‘we’ I do mean you and I, but I also mean all human beings.

There are so many forms of music that we’ve created, so many different genres, harmonies, modes, rhythms, texture, instruments, and so many things you could study, it could take an entire lifetime to get through it all!

We have such a fascination with it, we use it to tell stories, to transport us to past memories, to get emotions across. 

We love it so much, we’ve created a way to capture it and put it into little devices that allow us to listen to it whenever we crave its sound.

And some of us, the special ones of course, are so fascinated by it that we create it.

When that moment happens, you’ve tapped into something quite magical.

I think you’re incredible for composing.

So what’s the point of all of this?

This week, take a moment to reflect and think about your connection with music. 

Maybe think about your own answers to the questions, think about what connects you to music, and think about why you love creating it - and why you even started in the first place.

Taking this moment may help you to re spark your creativity.

It might help you bring your reason why back to life.

And hopefully, it helps you remember that what you’re creating matters.

Steven Pressfield says it beautifully in his book The War of Art:

If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don't do it, you not only hurt yourself, you even destroy yourself.

You hurt your children.

You hurt me.

You hurt the planet.

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther… 

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. 

It's a gift to the world and every being in it. 

Don't cheat us of your contribution. 

Give us what you've got.

Until next time,

Nadia