you guess the other yeah it’s English
fitting at it so what is a language
language is a method of human
communication thank you either spoken or
written consisting of the use of words
in a structured and conversational way
according to the dictionary but why do
we need language to talk amongst others
to share information to connect music
I’d like to assume that most if not all
of us here listen to music but I want
you to take a moment to think about
these two questions one why do you
listen to music & 2 why do composers or
artists write music the answers to these
questions are likely to be different as
they should be but let’s delve deeper
into why people write music in the first
place so why do people write music to
talk amongst others to communicate to
deliver messages and to connect
musicians compose and publish their work
to remind people that they were here on
this earth and that they have stories to
tell they converted their music into a
form of language as a musician myself I
can confirm that composing music and
delivering messages that one might not
have been able to tell by the simplicity
of speech is an extremely cathartic
experience due to the emotion that comes
with writing a song of your own I don’t
talk about my feelings often I’m aware
that it isn’t the best trait to have but
I sometimes prefer not to speak and so
instead I bury myself in music people
tend to hide from feelings they don’t
want to face and that’s what I did
however with music i came across exactly
what i was trying to avoid and i ended
up putting forth when i was unable to
say with words alone so even if
musicians don’t intend on delivering a
message a message or a form of message
or story is more often than not
delivered and even if the message that
our listener receives is different than
what a musician intended and message is
delivered nonetheless what one takes for
a piece of music depends on that
individual their personality their
expiry
and their alpha khan life an example of
this is when I had a gig in January 2016
that’s me at the gig and I sang an
original song about a couple’s divorce
in the eyes of their child and the host
made a comment afterwards he said that
reminded me of my ex girlfriend also I
wasn’t writing about his ex-girlfriend
obviously that’s what the hosts depicted
and that is what he took from my work
the scene that the song revolved around
could be shared between my
interpretation and his interpretation as
the song exploited the feelings of
despair felt due to loss and it truly is
rewarding when a piece of music you
write is one that people can relate to
in many different ways however but how
else’s music like a language this more
recent story should help prove it I am
self-taught and singing but I thought it
would benefit me to partake in singing
lessons with someone that had more
expertise and I currently possess and
after a 1 45 minute lesson I had learned
so much more regarding the significance
of lyrics and how you deliver them my
teacher told me that before I sing a
song read the words as if they were from
a poem deduce the meaning and once you
understand the singers intentions all
other technicalities should come
naturally things like breathing dynamics
which is how loud or soft you sing and
tempo or speed because they would all be
symbolic of lyrical meaning but messages
are not only delivered through lyrics
music alone can convey the deepest of
emotions and in turn tell the best
stories bear with may need to pick up
the guitar ok so you may remember as I
do learning about music in primary
school so in primary school the teacher
would have most likely said than any
music and a major key ok well can you
hear this
that’s a major chord okay any music in a
minor key is sad okay it’s okay don’t
worry about it i’m done with the guitar
I’ll fix it later before I sing it is a
very generalized approach but it is
mostly accurate major happy minor sad
and just as I’m sure as we’ve all felt
with a powerful der inspirational talk
or just a heartfelt conversation with a
friend I cannot be the only one that has
been so overwhelmed by a piece of
instrumental music that it has led to
goosebumps the hairs on the back of my
neck to stand up or even tears I often
write music in the dark as the loss of
sight heightens your other senses and
exposes you to the depths of your mind
and this usually results in hauntingly
beautiful music so aside from personal
experience developmental psychologist
Howard Gardner is widely known for
identifying the seven intelligences and
these are used to determine people’s
learning styles musical intelligence is
a category of its own and this only
reiterates how music is more than enough
to deliver a message or to communicate
and how some people may prefer to do so
in this way on top of this researchers
from john hopkins university conducted a
study that proves the existence of a
link between music and language when
looking at language we study two main
areas of the brain syntactic areas and
semantic areas syntactic areas are
concerned with the correct structure and
order of words while semantic areas are
concerned with the meaning of words so
the researchers asked the jazz players
to trade fours which is when they will
improvise and groups of four bars and
then after this they carried out brain
scans and aft and one thing the one what
the brain scan showed was that the
syntactic areas in the brain were active
at the time and this reinforces how
music is a language as even though the
players weren’t explicitly communicating
with one another the same areas of the
brain were activated now I try to be as
vague as possible when I say this so
that some of you can fill in the blanks
according to your own personal
experiences I wrote a song directed to
someone I wanted to say wanted to say
something too but I couldn’t do so with
words I
had been trying to spark up a
conversation about it for years and once
the other person heard the song they
ended up sparking the conversation for
me and now I am more than aware that
this person has been thinking about it
more than they ever have before the
message reached them through one of the
most comprehensive languages music and
I’d like to leave you with a quote by
American poet or the quotes gone by
American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
that I believe beautifully sums up what
I was going for music is the universal
language of mankind so here’s an
original song that put forth what I was
unable to say with words alone and it’s
called disillusioned it was their son
[Music]
to me
my
you
[Music]
I
[Music]
hi
[Music] ha
what made mrs. know
mrs. know Oh
she told me much ended I knew she is when
when me
me [Music]
[Music] my heart
[Music] Oh
[Music] to make
to make [Music]
[Music] you
you [Music]
[Music] Oh
Oh [Applause]
[Applause] Oh
[Music] No
No [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
[Applause] I wonder why weren’t you
I wonder why weren’t you [Music]
messed up you blew it do not show would do it shannon’s ruined was you
do it shannon’s ruined was you [Music]
go go [Music]