Musical Life and Commitment - Coursework Example

My Musical Life and Commitment Introduction DeGraffenreid, Fowler and Gerber argue that music is one of the most important forms of art in every person’s life since everyone dances to this tune, whether young or old (3). In fact, the use of music began a long time ago even during the renaissance period, where people could develop certain types of musical instruments to create music mainly for entertainment purposes. Despite the fact that music of the old ages were meant mainly for entertainment purposes, it has totally changed in the modern world, where apart from entertainment, music is also used to communicate, express power, and religion, narrating a story and preserving culture among others. Music also impacts a lot in people’s daily lives with regard to productivity, mood, as well as feelings. This paper will describe my musical life and commitment as an individual, member of a social group and future. I am an individual who has maintained great passion for music since my childhood. In fact, during my childhood, I could sometimes walk miles just to attend a music concert, something, which I did for several years. This was due to my love for music. Slowly, I began singing other people’s songs since I was still not at a position to compose my own songs. With time, I started getting an opportunity to sing in concerts something that motivated me a lot especially when being applauded by my audience. I became a member of a choir at my local church where I could also participate in singing and composing songs. It was later on that my singing talent was recognized and got a scholarship to study music. It is because of this that I sing songs for different purposes. As earlier stated, music has truly been very important in my life since childhood. This is because of the motivations I received from former music legends who have succeeded in life because of their music careers. One such is the great Bob Marley the legend and Lucky Dube, just to name but a few. My first performances were meant for entertainment purposes and in most cases had no serious message to communicate to the audience. In this regard, I would arise in the morning and compose a song which I felt woul entertain the audience as long as the bits used is appropriate. Indeed, this became a success as many people and concert organizers started looking for me whenever they organized a concert. This is because people usually like listening to entertaining music. For instance, even myself, I have always liked tuning in to music for entertainment especially after a long day of hard work because it helps me relax as I reflect on how the day had been and what awaits me ahead. In addition, music makes me feel like being with other people around and prevent me from becoming bored. In this way, it also helped in relieve any form of stress since it prevents me from thinking of bad things that had happened or those, which may happen in the future. It is for this reasons that I also entered the music career so that I can also compose songs for entertainment purposes. However, before long, I began to realize that music is no music if it has no message to pass across to the audience. This is after many people began criticizing my type of music for lacking message in them. This led to a fall in demand for my music as I could hardly receive an invitation for a concert. As a result, even the music I had produced witnessed a drastic fall in demand for the same lack of message. It is then that I realized how message is important in any time of music as well as the target audience. As a result, I began composing music that are educative and have powerful messages that the audience can relate to. In fact, most of my types of music were now based on my personal life experience as well as the things that take place around me and the world at large. This positively received by members of the public who then began seeking for my music, something which boosted me a great deal thereby enabling me to get more concert invitations. I have ever since ensured that my types of music are educative to the public in one way or the other. As I had earlier stated, I was particularly influenced to composing educative music by reggae legends like Lucky Dube and Bob Marley. For instance, most Bob Marley songs contain very powerful life changing messages that have helped make leave a good life. Take, for example, his “One Love” song, which teaches people a lot about the importance of loving each other. Lucky Dube is another reggae musician whose music have changed my life and thinking more than ever. Take, for example, his music, “Different colors one people.” This album teaches people that color, race, tribe, religion, or nationality is not important before the creator, since we are all one and are created in the image of God (DeGraffenreid, Fowler and Gerber 14). From the two, it can be seen that as much as these music are entertaining, they also educate and motivate people greatly. I also noticed that music is among the best paying professions. I recall how, at one time I could not afford to help my family since I used to earn very little money. This totally changed, just within my first year of getting into serious musical career. This is because I could sell several albums in a day from which I received thousands of dollars on a daily basis. Apart from the sales of the albums, I could also get extra money from the many concerts where I performed especially during the weekends and public events. Today, I am not who I was three years ago. This is true of many successful musicians in the world. Take, for example, Michael Jackson who became so rich because of their music. Others who have become excessively rich because of music include JZ, Kanye West, Byonce and Akon just to name but a few. Apart, from the wealth, that I have acquired by singing, I have also built for myself fame in the country. Certainly, I have ended up being a household name in many parts of the nation because of my successful musical career. This has helped boost my status as a person and as an artist. The fame I have gained is true of the other successful musicians earlier mentioned such as JZ, Akon, and Byonce, kanye West, Neyo, Rihana, and R Kelly among others. Despite the many good things I have experienced with music, there is also the ugly side of it. Piracy is one thing that is eating the labor of musicians in the county, which I have been a victim of. This is because they still musician’s music before they can be released to the market. What happens is that a musician may end up writing his music, and takes it to studio for production. Nevertheless, even before the launch of this music, one only finds it being played. In fact, the most recent study by Musicmetric indicated that Americans lead in terms of piracy (Ridney Par.1). This is one vice that needs to be eradicated completely throughout the country and those found engaging in search acts be prosecuted. Music has also proved to be a very important political tool used for drawing people together for a common course. I have engaged in several events organized for communicating certain important information to people. Take, for example, in 1985, when music was used to unite the global citizenry in the war against hunger and poverty. For this to happen, organizers usually organize live concerts using famous and popular musicians to draw masses to the event. Such was also the case in 2005, when Bob Geldof organized a ‘Live Aid Concert’ with the aim of compelling the G8 leaders to consider poverty a history. It is reported that the event was composed of ten concerts globally and several band and musicians drawn from all walks of life. During this concert, some songs were composed whose aim was to raise awareness regarding the impacts of poverty and what ought to be done to mitigate it. I also did the same at one time when I organized an event so as to raise funds for the less fortunate and destitute children in the society by organizing music concert to help pass the message. My musical life and commitment as a member of a social group in NYC Social group has been so helpful in my musical career. This became evident after joining Vocal Brilliance meetup group, a social group based in New York. The group incorporates all types of musicians whether upcoming or professional singers (Parilis Par. 1). The group mainly focuses on music such as classical, Jazz, rock, R&B and Broadway. This group has been so helpful to me since it has enabled me improve my singing ability both vocally and sound control. I remember myself having it rough trying to control my voice in certain types of music, which made me sound horrible at times. However, this improved tremendously after joining this group. This is because the group has professionals in every aspect of music ranging from vocal, performation, and microphone control. The group has also been beneficial through the various workshops and clinics that it organizes regular with the aim of preparing singers to have a better breathing control, war-up tips resonance, ear training and range expansion, which I had a lot of problems about before joining the social group. In fact, I recall a time when I wrote a very nice song, but I could not know the correct tune, resonance, and breathing control to adopt until I was taught by the music professionals at the group. This enabled me apply the correct breathing control that was required of the song, which finally helped in producing a song that many people ended up craving for. Certainly, without help from members of the social group, probably I would not have managed to produce such nice music. Being a member of this social group has also been beneficial to my music career because it provides for an opportunity for upcoming musicians like myself to meet with seasoned music professionals who educate and inspire us a lot. It is also through these meetings that we get the chnce to interact with professionals who help nature our talents in music. For instance, I got a chance to collaborate musically with one of the world’s famous musician at the social group. This helped boost my music song writing and performance more than ever. I certainly endeavor to continue my commitment to the group in the future, as this is perhaps the one way I will be able to grow in my musical carreer. This is because I believe that supporting other colleagues as they perform their individual music is one of the surest way of learning. This implies that I as a musician should dedicate part of my time the social group as a way of learning new things concerning music. My musical life and commitment for the future Music would certainly never end, as I believe that at no time will the world ever move away from music. This is because music is part of everyday life. In this regard, it is important for musicians to forecast the dynamics of music and move away from composing music without any important message. As a musician, I would be dedicated to improving my music career by composing songs that resonate well with the public of all cultures in the youth. It is noted also that current musicians tend to produce music that are offensive to children by showing certain sexual contents. I consider this not good for children and certain religion thereby depicting a bad picture of the music industry. In this regard, I would certainly endeavor to produce good music that can be admired by everyone irrespective of gender, age, religion, race, culture or ethnicity. Conclusion Music is indeed important in everyone’s life since it entertains and educates people, as well. However, as much as my music life appears to have been successful, I would certainly strive to improve on areas that I have not performed well mainly with the help of the social group. In the end, I believe I will end up being a very successful musician recognizable all over the continent. Work Cited DeGraffenreid, George., Fowler, Charles., & Gerber, Timothy. Music!: Its Role and Importance in Our Lives. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2005 Print. Parilis, Dan. The Vocal Brilliance Group: Singing, Performing, & Education, Web 29 October 2012, http://www.meetup.com/VocalBrilliance/. Rigney, Todd. Music Piracy: United States Tops List Of Illegal Downloaders. The Inquisitr, Web 29 October 2012. http://www.inquisitr.com/333927/music-piracy-united-states-tops-list-of-illegal-downloaders/. Read More