journal entry

Guitarist Martin Schmalenberg high-fives singer Kristin © Joe Di Maggio Albrecht at Spark After Dark.

Music Appreciation

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here are grammar schools in New Orleans that treat music programs as importantly as they do their math programs.

So why is music so important there? And why is it important everywhere?

Music is a large part of the culture in the Big Easy, and educators understand that music interacts with the part of the brain that develops logic and language.

Along with being an outlet for creativity, playing and singing music fosters memorization skills and promotes collaboration with others. Music has its own language, stimulating brain activity in its own unique way.

Just listening to music has been proven to be relaxing—it helps to lower blood pressure by slowing down blood flow and easing stress. Endorphins, the feel-good hormone, can be released, which help to reduce depression. The type of music, whether classical, rock, jazz, R&B, or reggae, for example, doesn’t matter, but the effect it has on us individually does.

I’ve been reading a biography of the physicist and mathematician, Albert Einstein, author of Relativity: The Special and General Theory. A lesser-known fact about Einstein was that he was an accomplished violinist, and it is said that if he had not had a career in science, he may have been a professional musician. “I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music,” Einstein declared so gracefully. Music gave him more pleasure than anything else in his life. Einstein also said that “Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.”

Bringing it back home, this past June, the annual Milford Music Festival weekend was all set to go—with acts about to perform throughout town—music lining the streets. A nationally known band had been booked at the Milford Theater to kick things off on Friday evening when at the last minute, they had to postpone due to a medical emergency. This is when local blues legends, Bobby Kyle and Scott Weis, stepped up to provide a free concert to the people. They rocked the house and got the weekend off to a great start.

Perhaps you’ve read Bobby Kyle’s story in our April 2018 issue; now here’s Scott Weis’s in this issue. Whether it’s music in the park, on the streets, in an art gallery, or at a bar; music in a house of worship, a school, a theater, a stage, or in your own backyard...people relate, people enjoy, and people unite through music. Always follow the music!