Imagine yourself in a restaurant, your car, a beauty salon, or in a theatre before the show begins … There’s always music in the background, making that moment with your family or friends special and memorable. Music sets the mood and enhances or creates the atmosphere.
Music is a universal language. It brings people together, connecting us through rhythm and sometimes through lyrics also. There’s an intangible link intertwining language and music between people. Language and music define us as human beings. People all over the world love music; it is one of our basic needs and a reliever of stress.
Music is not only an art form; it’s a heart form that expresses every emotion we have. Music changes our mood; inspires creativity, uplifts the ambience and sooths the soul. We are all better people with music in our hearts; it seeps into the spirit and makes us come alive. We simply can’t live without it!
When I’m in my ballet class I prefer to stand closest to the pianist so I can feel the music and energy in my body as much as possible. The accompanist and the dancer have a special relationship that is very powerful. It can lift, pull, support, encourage and celebrate–all without words being spoken.
We each have those songs that transport us back in time to important events and special memories. Think about high school, college, birthdays, weddings, vacations and family gatherings…. When I hear the Simple Minds song, Don’t You Forget About Me, I’m instantly transported back to my high school graduation because it was our class song.
This time of year sororities in colleges are preparing for rush. I fondly remember practicing the beautiful Alpha Chi Omega songs at the University of Alabama before rush began. The last day of rush is the most special because that is when we serenade our hopeful new pledges. I love to sing my Alpha Chi songs to my children as lullabies.
When I was three I fell and hurt my eye and had to have stitches. I was crying hysterically until my Dad started singing, Blue Moon. I was instantly relaxed and entranced.
I love to hear the Lord’s Prayer sung during church. There is something so peaceful and beautiful about hearing music in church. Think about hearing Pachelbel Canon during a wedding; it sets the mood for love and makes you feel good all over.
Music is powerful because it stirs our emotions, heals the temporarily painful wound of daily living and breaks down stereotypes. Music enables us to avoid inhibitions that prevent us from feeling closer to others, promotes self-expression and has magical medicinal powers.
I have had the good fortune of having many great musical experiences. I recently saw Cyndi Lauper with a group of friends and I can tell you when Cyndi played, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” we all threw our arms up dancing and smiling with more energy than the energizer bunny.
The music teacher at the school where I teach ends all her emails, “Music is what feelings sound like.” This is so true because music can change a mood instantly. There’s always a song to accompany the mood that you’re in: happiness, joy, sadness, passion, anger, or even frustration… Music allows people to express themselves without having to speak. No one is invulnerable to the power of music.
Think about songs that make you happy and give you a feeling of nostalgic pleasure; those are the songs that bring back good memories and make you want to “just dance.”
We all have our “favorites” playlist of songs that simply make us feel good. I’d like to share a few of mine with you:
• Debussy’s Clair de Lune
• Tracy Chapman’s Baby Can I Hold You
• Van Morrison’s Into the Mystic
• Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time
• Michael Jackson’s Butterflies
• Carla Bruni’s Quelqu’un m’a dit
• Gipsy King’s Bamboleo
• Abba’s Dancing Queen
• The Bangles Going Down to Liverpool
• Barbra Streisand’s Woman in Love
• Bob Marley’s Jamming
• Carole King’s So Far Away
• Corinne Bailey Rae Put Your Records On
• Donna Summer’s Bad Girls
• Duke Ellington’s She’s Too Pretty to be Blue
• Edith Piaf’s La Vie en Rose
• Janis Joplin’s Summertime
• Madonna’s Holiday
What’s on your playlist?
