Music Connects, Transports Messages and Gets You Heard

I think we’re all well aware that making music, in all its facets, has infinite advantages. After all, the magic of music is for some a wonderful hobby, for some a profession, but for all an attitude towards life itself. Music has every right to be called a universal language, a socially connecting glue and an attention-grabbing megaphone with which messages can be  sent out into the world. When you think about it, music carries quite a heavy communicative responsibility on its shoulders… In the following blog, we will go into more detail about that. Why do you make music? Perhaps it is in the following #reasons2play… 

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The megaphone with which messages are transported

When you have something to say, when you want to draw attention to issues because you feel you have to and the world needs it, then music is your best friend. You write your song, put your words into a musical framework, record it and off you go. Your message is now in a format that can be heard everywhere! If no one listened to you before, try music: It has a tendency to stick in people’s minds! 

Social glue that connects musicians

When you make music with others, you meet people in an incomparable way – be it in the band, in the orchestra, in the family or around the campfire, for example. Everyone tunes into each other, experiences shared vibes with tones, harmonies and grooves in space and time. You help each other and take each other on a common musical journey. Every note becomes a shared experience! Whether we are on stage ourselves or simply enjoying music: Music brings people together to celebrate life. 

Longing for interaction, feedback and conversations with the audience

We must not forget the oh-so-special role of the audience. How much we all missed, and still miss, the immediate feedback and interaction during the pandemic restrictions and performance bans: the emotions, the encounters and exchanges with the audience. The singing along and roaring when the concert really takes off, the happy faces, the affirming applause and the feedback during and after the gig. Music is something you talk about, a communication booster that loosens even the most silent of tongues. 

Making music together as an instrument against exclusion and rejection

The impressive effect of music on cohesion was shown by a long-term study at several Berlin primary schools more than 20 years ago. The results of the “Bastian Study” (by Prof. Dr. Hans Günther) were compiled over a period of 6 years. The evaluation showed that children’s social competence is significantly increased through active music-making in the classroom. The number of those who were excluded and rejected was massively reduced compared to primary schools without a musical focus. The reason: making music together requires listening in detail to each other and understanding each other emotionally. 

Music as a borderless and cross-culturally understandable language 

As early as 1835, the American writer Henry Longfellow described music as the “universal language of our species”. At that time, the thesis was probably extremely steep, possibly even a poetic and utopist thought, especially since it could not be proven. Nowadays however, researchers are able to support this thesis with facts. For example: German and Canadian researchers have found similar forms and functions in sung songs around the globe. This has sharpened the spontaneously plausible conviction that music has the potential to overcome language barriers. 

The Pygmies are not into sheet music 

In the extreme case study, 40 amateur and professional musicians from the vibrant and musical Canadian city of Montreal were compared with 40 members of the Mbenzelé pygmy people from the Congolese rainforest. In other words people, who have no contact with other cultures or even civilisation. The measured reactions of pulse, breathing, facial expression, mood while listening to pieces of music from both so fundamentally different cultures were almost identical. The fact that the listeners from the rainforest were more into their own music raises Western European questions. Tastes remain different after all. 

Even more reasons to make music

Do you want more # reasons2play? Then read the following blog articles:

Music Makes Everything a Little Bit Better

Never Too Late!

Music is the World’s Biggest Playground

Joe has been singing since he can remember and started playing guitar when he was 10. He's been using it as a songwriting tool ever since. He is passionate about melody and harmony and admires musicians who create these in unique ways. Check out his alternative / indie projects Best of Feelings and Zef Raček.

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