It has been said that music has a seat at the counsel of the soul. It is a foundational building block of the universe itself. The vibrations of sound form the matter that exists all around us. It is cultural universal, every community, tribe, and society generates they own form of it or borrows the creation of others. It is, indeed, a language which everyone speaks, though some do it much more proficiently than others. It is used in story telling, ceremony, recreation, and contemplation. Even trying to image what the world would be like in its absence is breathtakingly difficult.

We have created instruments off all shapes and sizes. Made from wood, plastic, metal, stone and anything else that will serve to create a tone. From a tone we create a tune, which becomes a melody and, as sure as a river flows to the ocean, becomes intermingled with an orchestra of sound.

A Guitar – A piano – A voice

A Guitar, a piano, a voice… each instrument brings it own timbre and flavour to the symphonic whole. Each man, woman, or child their own maestro of creation. A guitar can be made to sing within the correct hands, a piano to sore. Wind instruments to have their place for this who wish not to sing with their own voice. The six strings of a guitar can gather and handful of friends around a campfire, or a stadium of strangers. The right notes and chords played together can bring us music that lifts us to the peak and the depth of our emotional range.

We are inspired by those who can sing and create songs. Each of us has within us that spark of music. The desire to burst into song or dance when the right song appears at the right time. In the age before television every household that could afford a piano had one within its walls. It was the centre piece for entertainment, so long as there were hands adept enough to make it sing. With a world that changes everyday, so quickly in fact that we can not even keep up with all the advancements, there are a few things that stay true. Music and the sharing of vocal song is always with us. Yes, it will take many forms, vacillating from harmony to chaos, from electronic to acoustic, staccato to legato, but for ever more the mathematics will remain.

There are only so many chords and combination of notes possible. A finite set, at least within the limited range of human hearing, and if we are not playing for us then who else? There is something so satisfying about just sitting with a guitar or other instrument of choice, and strumming out a song, for no one but oneself. And there is something even more satisfying to join in a chorus of instruments with a combined goal of blending into song.

Music can be so Rewarding

It is a labor of love. Many start out with the idea of entertaining a few friends around a campfire with a few well chosen guitar songs, but upon starting we find how much of a challenge that can be. Hundreds of hours of practice go into the learning of each instrument. There is a difference between make the right sounds on a guitar and making it sing. The ear of the listener can tell the two apart even if they can not verbalize the difference. Fortunes have been made with a song. Live forever altered by a melody. It has been such a part of each of our live that we almost take it for granted. When the end is near there will be song. Maybe not the biblical trumpets of God as prophesied, maybe just a couple of your favourite tune played by loved ones at your funeral. Songs that they know you loved, or reminded them of you. Songs that built memories of laughter or tears shared. It is inescapable, the eb and flow of these magic melodies.