Music and Movement

Music and Movement

Right now, ACDC is playing on my lap top. ACDC is not one of the more complicated rock groups out there, and the lead singer sounds like maybe he is the last known male castrati. However, I have this huge urge to leap up from where I am sitting and start dancing and air guitar playing to the music. What is it about a band that maybe plays three chords on the guitar, a little rhythm guitar solo in the middle and not very complicated drum patterns that makes me want to head bang? I have always felt the impulse to move to music, and I believe that it is a basic human urge to move to a beat. I think that they both go hand in hand. Most music has a pulse, and if there is no pulse, people are thrown off. Why? I am not quite sure, but people seem to respond better if they can mentally and physically make sense of music. I took dance classes until I was 15 years old, so I have always moved to music. This also gave me a good sense of rhythm, I think. My parents would bounce me up and down in time to music on their knee, and I really think that had a great deal in my development of a good sense of pulse. When I was in middle school, I was in an Irish band. There is an Irish dance troupe in Jackson, Mississippi, so our paths would cross a lot. I learned how to Irish dance, and that was a lot of fun. In high school, I learned how to do African dance from Ghana. That was really cool! In every culture it seems that the people have made movement to music. From classical ballet dancing to awkward high school dances, I believe that dancing to music helps us express ourselves and allows us to feel the music.

Musical Autobiography

Musical Autobiography

I have been very fortunate throughout the years to have many opportunities to be exposed to music of different cultures. My music studio in Mississippi was very good about incorporating music from different places. For instance, we sang a lot of African folk tunes such as Gabi, Gabi (from West Africa) and Alleluia (from Ghana). We were also very interested in North American slave songs such as Wade in the Water and Ride on, King Jesus. We even had an African drum teacher in my studio named Adebe. When I was thirteen, I played the penny whistle in an Irish band with two violinists and a drummer. Perhaps my favorite memory of learning about other cultures’ music was when I went to a Mountain Music Festival in the summer of 2004. It was really cool, because there were all kinds of musicians there. A lot of people made their own instruments, including these drummers I met. They made drums out of pails, metal things, chimes and pretty much anything that could be struck and make a cool sound. I had a lot of fun with them, and we just improvised. Actually, every one pretty much improvised their music at the festival. Also, I am from Mississippi, and I am at the center of some pretty cool musical styles. First, blues was introduced in the Delta, so I have pretty much heard that style of music my whole life. I am also near New Orleans where there are all kinds of styles of music. Out of all of the styles of music that I have been exposed to in my life, I think that I enjoy the African folk songs the most. They just have a spirit about them that one cannot really find in the Western culture. I think a close second would be the slave songs. They are not really as influenced by Western culture as one might think. There are a lot of really interesting modes used, and it gives the songs an overall haunting feeling. I really enjoy music of other cultures besides Western culture, and I am very interested in learning more about them.