What do you love about music?

[Dave T]

I don't mean this as flippantly as it is probably going to sound but…

What I love about music is how it sounds coming from an acoustic guitar. Other music is pleasant and even entertaining but the sound of an un-amplified guitar is what grabs me.

Dave

[roeg]

Freedom....

[Charmed Life Picks]

Diamond Dave, thanks for your response.

Dave T, I don't think that's flippant at all. I loooooove the sound of an unamplified steel string guitar with new strings on it. It's enticing and exciting. For that matter, ALL acoustic instruments can be amazing -- piano, oboe, cello, harmonic.

What would replace these things in our lives without these instruments and the sounds they produce?

[bohemian]

primal ( minus singer songwriters)

[Mr Bill]

I heard a quote awhile back - "Music is what feelings sound like."

I like that. And of course, I like music. The great stuff will be played and sung years, decades, and centuries after it was originally written.

[Charmed Life Picks]

The mystery of the Beatles, for instance. When those four souls were in the room at the same time, something magical happened. Many people who were at Abbey Road studios at that time have reported that.

And American gospel music -- you can hear the spirit coming through, something mysterious and divine.

[love the guitar]

Everything about it. When one plays music the brain releases all kinds of healing properties to the body, a nice side effect.

[Pheof]

The energy and passion I see in bands who do humble live performances. The wisdom and perseverance I see in old players well into their 60s and 70s who still do what they love to do.

That I can pick up a musical instrument and make sound with it.

That the instruments are built with hundreds of years of craftsmanship that came about through centuries of trial and error.

That musical instruments are the tools of worship to a higher power.

That music has the power to tear down walls and barriers, and transcends, race, religion, politics and human consciousness.

That thy are, within themselves, objects of adoration.

That music can change and define generations.

That music is the most effective elixir and cure for human emotional ailments, and has an immense power to heal.

[MarvinLee]

It's always there whenever you need it.

[epluribus36]

I don't really know. I only know that I love it!

[Trevor B.]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

I've enjoyed this thread, the goofiness and the touching.

For me, music takes me to another place. It makes me better than I am, it helps me to see what I could not see, to hear what I could not hear, to feel what I could not feel.

About a year ago my wife and I on our 43'rd wedding anniversary drove to Seattle on a Friday afternoon to go hear Jane Monheit at Jazz Alley. It was a wonderful experience, but getting there in Friday afternoon Seattle traffic was just awful for me. I live in the boondocks these days and am not used to that aggressive, white fingernail kind of driving anymore, so by the time we got to Jazz Alley, I was seriously stressed out. My poor wife looked at me and said, "This was a mistake, wasn't it?" I said, "No, ... Just give me few minutes..." Then Jane Monheit came on and started to sing with her trio, and in seconds, I was in another place. Everything was good.

That is the power of music for me.

- Glenn

Great story all around!!! Thanks for sharing.
Often when I'm playing or even practicing time stands still. The power of music to transcend the everyday and express emotions I'm otherwise unable to articulate makes it the most powerful artistic force in my life.
The downside is that time doesn't really stand still and what feels like a mere moment of musical joy often turns out to be hours!!!

[DESERTRAT1]

It can bring you friends. It can tell a story. It's poetic. It's not mandatory. It makes my soul roll. It makes the world go away.

[Charmed Life Picks]

What a great idea for a thread, and what great responses. Let's keep it going. Who else can chime in here?

[okieboy]

Talking about art and music, James Leva once said that Old Time Music "has its functional aspects and its transcendent moments." I play always in expectation for those transcendent moments -- moments when music escapes the bonds of time and space and becomes something of great beauty. At the same time the music I play is rooted in a particular time and place -- and my guitar becomes a "way-back machine" to take me there. Pure fantasy but at my age I am allowed fantasy and as many transcendent moments as I can experience!

[woodstock64]

It transports me to the "zone".