One of the paradoxes of life is that the things that are most important seem to get the least attention, and the things that are least important get all the attention. We want to train students at our music school in Midland, Texas to participate in the intangible beauties of making music.
Those in our society who lift up a standard of morality, spirituality, or help and guidance in matters relating to how to have a successful marriage, raise children, or be a good manager or employee usually come in the form of a pastor, church leader, or social worker. When compared to a pop-star or highly acclaimed athlete, the pay scale doesn’t even compare. In fact, the first thing people think when they see a minister with any money is that he is a ‘charlatan.’
How many times do we, as humans, seek that which is tangible (able to be seen or touched) above the unseen elements of life?
It is simply easier to deal with what we can see, hear, taste, touch, or smell. Naturalists or secularists view life through the narrow window of the commonality of money. The one thing that seems be universally needed is provision of commodities: food, clothing, shelter. And, therefore, money is necessary to acquire these things. Communism’s root of atheism sees all of humanity this way. Everything that is needful is material.
Yet there are elements in all of our lives that we have experienced that defy explanation. The beauty of a sunrise. The joy of a newborn child. The love between a husband and wife. Can we quantify hope, peace, joy? We hope to inspire in students at our music school in Midland, Texas an awareness of beauty that can be experienced by playing music.
Some say all of these things can be naturalistically explained, chemical reactions within our brains. Yet, even modern science has come to a place that requires greater faith to accept. Multi-dimensions can be mathematically proven and even computer-modeled. But the human mind cannot seem to grasp it. String Theory and Quantum Mechanics shows the universe as vibrating stands of energy. Science itself has come to a place that requires an acceptance of realms beyond our grasp.
And it is these intangibles of human life that make us truly human.
Science seeks to merge man with machine. AI is poised to replace human thought and robotics, human productivity. Those at the forefront of science seek a world of humanoids far more numerous than people. Some are even seeking how to capture the human soul and put it into a machine, allowing for immortality.
The very fact that people are seeking immortality reveals that they search for eternal or intangible spiritual awareness.
The question we must ask ourselves is, “What does it mean to be truly human?” What are the attributes that define our human existence. If we relegate all meaning to materialism, where does that leave us?
Music lives in the realm of the intangible. Yet, it points to something beyond itself. Music is beauty, among other things. Where does that beauty come from? If beauty exists, it must come from somewhere. It cannot exist in a vacuum. Where does peace and tranquility come from? What natural phenomena, what commodity compares to a peaceful soul or genuine hope, or transcendent vision for the future?
At our music school in Midland, Texas we hope to inspire our students to appreciate the beauty that comes from participation in music and the arts.
The interesting thing about music is that it also touches the natural. When we describe music as fast, slow, high or low, it is none of these things. It incites our imagination to running, marching, dancing and becomes movement. But it, in itself is not movement, only the imagination or metaphor of it.
When two musicians play in ensemble with one another, what is being said or communicated between them? It is like they are both ‘talking’ at the same time. Yet both are ‘talking’ while at the same time ‘listening.’ Listening skills are taught in our music school in Midland, Texas, helping the student succeed in ensemble playing.
When you hear a beautiful melody that grabs your heart, what it going on at that moment that touches you so deeply? Can you explain it away?
When you go to a concert and something happens. A moment of meaning that goes beyond explanation. And everyone knows it. Everyone feels it. They leave the concert hall all knowing something happened. What was it?
What was that one moment of beauty you remember? You’ll never forget it. In fact, you keep searching for it. You think if you go back to that same place you felt it the first time that it will be there again. But it’s gone. Only a memory. If only it could be captured and held tightly, never to let it go. But you know it happened.
I call this the ‘moment of grace.’ And it can happen anywhere, at any time. But the conditions have to be set for it to occur. What are those conditions?
It’s what a musician prepares for his entire life. Practicing. Listening. Learning. Ready. Students in our music school in Midland, Texas continue to prepare for these moments in their own lives and careers.
The musician can’t make it happen. But he prepares, so that when the wind of inspiration blows, he is there to catch it. He is like the sail of a ship being positioned in the best way to catch a gust to propel him forward.
So many of us get stuck in one place, emotionally. We’re stuck in bitterness rooted in unforgiveness. We’re stuck in pity, having been wounded by a relationship. We’re stuck in nostalgia, living in past memories.
Music is medicine to carry us forward to the place of healing. It can soothe our souls, but it can also move our inner life to a place of health and wholeness. At our music school in Midland, Texas we endeavor to inspire our students to participate in this kind of music-making.
Lyrics can bring us a message of meaning and melodies can get stuck in our head. But an emotional touch can change our lives forever.
What is the value of music? How can you put a price tag on inner transformation? There is not enough money in the world to equal an unburdened heart.
There are areas of our humanity we seem to have sidelined. We chase after the material, when it is really the immaterial that we are looking for.
Our culture desperately needs realignment to be able to see the unseen, embrace that which exists in another part of our humanity.
Music is that bridge to the unseen.