Life without music?

[Bob]

I realized I've been busy and have skipping just having music on the background.  What a dreary drudgery that is.  There is just something about having music on the background that makes live more enjoyable and exciting.

[lucylucy]

you have right bobby !
i loooooooooooooooooooooooove music !!!
but i think i could live without music 

[Bob]

I think I could live without performing it.  But listening?  No.  It's too dry.

My performance is only so many pieces of music.  I want to listen to a lot more than that.  Plus, working on technical things for preparation isn't very expressive.

[Essyne]

I know a woman who listens to NO MUSIC. At all. She is one of the most messed up people that I know emotionally. She is in a bad marriage (stifling - the guy's a jerk) and she just settles. For everything. I think that she doesn't know the value of her life, therefore she just keeps repressing her emotions and will not allow herself to enjoy even the simplest of life's pleasures. It's quite sad, actually. I've given her CDs and things for Christmas/etc., but she just lets them sit there and doesn't indulge.

I'm with you, Bob. I could (possibly) live w/o performing it (Note the "live," but I cannot comment on what the quality of life would be - just not as exciting I guess. . . . ), but I KNOW that I couldn't "live" without music at all. It's my faithful companion. It's what I can go to when everything has gone wrong. If it weren't for music (quite literally) I wouldn't be here today, but that's another story for another time. Listening, maybe, I could live without, but I'd definately do some serious playing/composing/whatever to make up for it. But does THAT count as listening? . . . .

In short, No music - No life. Know music - Know life (No, I won't take credit for slogans that aren't mine, but I like that one anyways  ).

[pies]

a

[aewanko]

life w/o music? I'd go crazy!!

[naughtyprincess]

i cant imagine life without music. =/

[indutrial]

Since I'm a performer, a teacher, a composer and a researcher, I could easily stop doing the performing and teaching duties for the benefit of the others. Playing live has little context for me since I hate maintaining gear and the audience never seems to really care how good the music is and more about what my hair looks like or what color shirt I'm wearing (I'm talking about experimental rock music here). Getting rid of music entirely is not something I'd ever be prepared to deal with. If it were forced on me by some freak accident in which my ears got ripped out of my head, I would probably try my best to pick up the pieces and get into mathematics or physics to keep my mind from turning into jello. Or I would continue to write and study music just based on what I remembered.

I interact with a lot of people who either don't listen to music at all or compartmentalize music to the point where it's just a soundtrack to their commute or their social life. A lot of my students' parents are like this and they're just into having their kids play guitar and bass as other extensions of proper after-school discipline or to keep them off the streets, etc.. Most of them are surprised when they get clued in to how passionate I am about music, composers, etc... Even other music teachers I've worked alongside these past few years seem to bring a jobbishness and resignation to their role that seems to take the fun out of it completely. I'm scared shitless of lame music teachers who don't seem to understand what music is like outside of their tiny pedagogical routines. Why am I scared? Because they act f**king creepy and seem to have more pent-up longings than anybody! Maybe if they actually loved music they wouldn't hate their own lives so much.

Without trying to sound like a high-minded artist, loving music is just one of many examples of feeding your mind and coming to grips with your subconscious desires. Some people prefer other things like solving sudeko puzzles, building houses, gauging the stock market, solving engineering problems, painting pictures, playing chess etc... I was watching some show last night on the Food Network where a bunch of people were competing with one another at making brilliantly artistic wedding cakes. That's awesome. Repressing things that keep your mind active like some kind of monk or martyr (that poor, pathetic-sounding woman up above) and focussing on habit, avoiding or limiting creativity and discovery, being a good worker bee, submitting to every social anxiety that comes along is self-defeating bulls**t, and it's far more indulgent (not to mention, annoying to others) than just hitting an even wavelength with your own mind.