Music is an essential part of every life and every culture. However, it is a huge part of my life. My time is spent on music every day almost and some days it would appear that it is the only thing I ever participated in. Music plays a very important role in my life because it guides me, it teaches me, and it helps me get through tough times. I am very involved in band, and that has been the main influence of music in my life, but not the only one.
Music guides me in what I do. In band, the leadership of all the seniors and those who have come before me in band has influenced me to try and become better. I not only apply this to the musical side of my life, but the rest of it as well. I am making an effort to practice more and this applies to other studies in school as I am putting a greater effort toward taking more time and care into homework than what is necessary in order to just make it by and pass. I also am trying to make myself a better person so that when I am a senior I can be nearly as wonderful a leader as they were. However, since so many great people have come before me, I worry that I cannot be that good.
Music has taught me many things. I have experienced strenuous times in marching band. My determination I have learned from pushing until the last breath, the last moment, the last ounce of strength I have left in every song, piece, or show. I have learned more about the way music is. I now understand many things about the aspects of music and the way it is written that I would never have imagined before. Chords and scales, once hard and impossible to comprehend, are now clear and understanding songs is easier since those basic concepts are in my mind. I also have learned that the individual is not as important as the whole. But, at the same time, one must also understand that if one individual messes up then the whole group suffers because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Everyone must come together and make wonderful music and play their part without covering up and losing other people�s parts.
Music has got me through tough times. Not only has happy, energetic, and positive music helped to lift my mood, but the sense of worth I feel in band helps me keep my head up. The friends that I have now I most likely wouldn't have had. We all basically love music and it is nearly our very life. For some of us, it's what keeps us going day after day, looking forward to some practice not only for the music in it, but for the companionship and friendship that comes from working together to make music. Without each other to lean on, some people would most likely not make it living day to day. With band I can find a purpose greater than myself and something more to be striving for than my individual goals.
Music itself may be the focus of band, but it isn't the end of it. So much more goes on in band than that. The friendships one forms, the skills one learns, and where it takes someone is amazing if one stops to think about it. Without band, I would certainly be a very different person now. Music is definitely a central part of my life and plays a very active role in everything I ever do. |
