Your Song

If asked, most people would say they are not musical. They would say that they 'like' music and listen to it often, but they just aren't talented at music. From my experience, most people I encounter believe that music and musicians belong to a sort of elite 'club' that only the talented can join. They also believe that those people are born into this club, being talented from birth or even before. Predestination is about the only word I can think of to describe this belief. I have often wondered where this belief comes from and what I could do to dispel it. To me, it is a great obstacle to the growth and creativity of most people, because I believe that ALL human beings are musicians.

If that surprises you, it should. This idea flies in the face of hundreds of years of social notions and norms that separate the talented from the untalented. To me, it's a little bit like Thomas Jefferson putting those words into the Constitution that say: “All men are created equal...” while still owning slaves. It would seem that this idea is far-fetched; even preposterous. How can everyone be a musician when there seems to be such clear lines delineating the 'musical' and the 'unmusical'?

To illustrate, I recently watched a movie about a woman who was given charge over a baby who, in the view of the doctors, was going to die within a few days because of his condition. This woman had been working with the hospital for many years, taking care of numerous children who needed special attention which the hospital or parents were unable to give. Though they never had any children of their own, she and her husband worked together to help these children have a better life. The doctors said that the baby, an orphan, was without hope and they just needed someone to care for him until he died. Though aging and in need of care herself, the woman gladly took the child and said emphatically, “He is not going to die!” The doctor shook his head and left. Through her diligence and faith, the child did not die, but lived. However, he was blind and paralyzed. This did not discourage the woman. Every day, she talked to, worked with, taught, fed, clothed and loved that child. Miraculously, after many years of work, he learned to communicate and even to walk. Then, without warning, he walked into her piano room and sat to the piano and began playing one of the pieces that the woman had so often played for him. She thought it was her recording. When she looked into his room, she saw him sitting at the piano and nearly fainted. Could he really be playing it, she thought? He had had no instruction, no training, no aptitude, no sight, and according to the doctors, no ability whatsoever. Yet, there he was.

This story is only one of thousands of examples of people who overcome terrific odds in order to succeed. THAT, is music.

Each person is given a life. Life is energy; vibration, music. When you live it, you play music. Some people have some pretty sad songs. Their lives are an endless stream of self-pity and sorrow: “I never had a chance. I'm not talented. I don't have good looks. I'll never amount to anything great.” Others take life and turn lemons into lemonade. Like the woman in the story, they don't take life and sit on it, they take life and run with it. That's music.

Anyone at all, even a deaf person, can learn music. The so-called tone-deaf, can be taught, the blind can become proficient at it, the mentally handicapped, the physically impaired; in fact, anyone who is still breathing is a musician. Breathing is music. Life is music. If you have it, you are a musician. So, instead of being sad because you don't have musical talent, start being thankful that you have the best music in the world and start using it to sing your own song; whatever it happens to be.