Who here knows the power of a musical note?
Who here can grasp the strength of a chord?
And who here even dares to try and comprehend the dominating might of a melodic line?
Who here thinks they can understand music
When one chord can make you think of the Sahara desert
And the next teleport you to the Greek Olympics?
Music has too many faces for even those who play it to understand.
Now I want you to close your eyes and just imagine
The warm, buttery tone of a French horn, which can melt even the most robust of listeners.
Imagine that with the pounding force of a tuba behind it.
Now let’s add trombones to the mix, and get a little louder
After them come the clarinets.
Now I want you to add the flutes and the trumpets and the percussion
And here’s where it gets tricky,
Add the saxophones, add the bassoons, add the bass clarinets
Add everything from power of the low brass to the sharp tone of the high woodwinds
And before you know it you have a symphony of wordless poetry being spoken in an ever-changing lockstep
All following one beat yet shaping each line individually as a sculptor would shape clay
Imagine the sharp sting of trumpets in your favorite jazz tune
As the saxophones smear notes like a 3 year old with finger paint
And the rhythm section driving behind them
With their aggressively laid back, cool cat style.
From the standard time of 4/4 to the dance of 7/8 to the “I don’t even know” of 5/8
Playing in everything from staccato to legato to marcato
It may seem like Latin gibberish to the brain, but your ears will say otherwise as they absorb that wondrous blend of instrumental ingredients.
Imagine the power of an intense audible masterpiece
That teleports you to the front lines of the American Revolution
Where every cymbal crash is a cannon shot and every trill is a volley of 16th note bullets
That pierces a listener’s ears as easily as real bullets would pierce the skin of a fighting soldier.
And to all you music makers out there, if anyone tries to tell you that you’re just a musician
Then you can tell them that your heart has been unlocked
And your mind has been opened by the resonant harmony of music
And that before they criticize the dominating might of a melodic line,
They should go out and find the power of a musical note, first.