Personal Narrative Music and I Essay Example For Students

Personal Narrative Music and I Essay Music and I Ever since I was a small child, I have loved music. The strong, steady beats, the entrancing melodies, and the lyrics that vary between heart-warming and heart-wrenching have always had an unexplainable affect on my life. Music seems to have the ability to change certain aspects of my world. If I am in a foul mood, an angry girl band can make my rotten attitude even more irresistibly awful. When I am happy, any sort of upbeat, dance-to-me kind of music enhances my joy that much more. I love to study to classical music, daydream to classical music, even sleep to classical music. Through my teen years, I became a fan of the often melodramatic country music that is still preset on my radio today. No matter what kind of music it is, when I turn it on, my mood morphs easily into whatever kind of music I am listening to. Music has absolutely been an enormous part of my life and who I am. However, this is not to say that I have much musical talent. I did perform in the choir in elementary school, and I played the flute for four years through middle school, but one day I came to a simple decision. When it comes to music, I am a much better enjoyer of it than a producer of it. When I am alone in the car, my sing-along-to-whatever-is-on-the-radio voice is fab-u-lous. However, as soon as any else climbs into the car with me my talent suddenly dwindles. My larynx doesn’t seem to appreciate an audience when it is trying to perform. Thus, my musical enjoyment stems directly from listening. My love for music has existed for as long as I can remember. When I was a child, my mom and I had a special song that she would sing to me if I was sick, sad, or sometimes just as a treat before bed. To this day, â€Å"You are My Sunshine† has the power to make me teary-eyed. Because it is not a song that is often played on the radio, I hardly ever hear it anymore. However, whenever someone is whistling it as they walk by or I hear it on a movie (who doesn’t love Beaches?), my heart soars and a smile creeps across my face as my eyes begin to swell. The song simply has the ability to bring back a million happy memories from my childhood within its first few notes. When my older sister got married, I wanted to do something special to remind her of our childhood and to take her mind off of the wedding stress as we were getting ready the day of the wedding. I thought back to all of the songs we loved when we were little, many of which were sung by the infamous one-hit-wonders of the eighties. I think each generation has songs that are popular to them and that they will never forget the lyrics to. However, if you mentioned the artists that sang them or the names of other songs they sang, no one would have a clue what you were saying. Still, the songs are precious to the people that grew up with them. When my sister and I listened to the CD I made for her in the limousine on the way to the ceremony, we were both brought right back to the days when we were growing up. Wedding seem to provide a perfect atmosphere for the sentimental music that is sometimes otherwise condemned as â€Å"cheesy.†My sister, as the Matron of Honor at my wedding, threw in two wonderful surprises as she was giving her toast. The first surprise was that my younger brother helped her, and the second surprise came just as they began to speak. Suddenly, music swelled behind their voices. As a private sibling joke, my brother and sister and I have always teasingly sang â€Å"You are the Wind Beneath my Wings† to each. The music that began just as they did was that very song. Incredibly enough, this special effect that was meant as a joke made me burst into tears. I can’t explain why, because although they weren’t tears of joy, I certainly wasn’t sad. Maybe my tears were that of appreciation for my siblings’ support. Whatever the reason, my tears triggered my younger brother’s emotions, and then he and my sister both shed a few tears as they finished their toast. The song that was such a joke to all of us had somehow become presious and sacred at the same time. Music and Western Civilization EssayThis semester I am taking a class on integrating music into the elementary school classroom. I have seen some amazing techniques from my instructor, but the most powerful demonstration I have seen was presented by one of my classmates for our final projects. She read a book to the class while music played in the background. She read a children’s book about pirates called Tough Boris that is not going to be winning a Newberry or Caldecott Award anytime soon. However, Fanfare for the Common Man played as she read it, timed just right, gave me goose bumps. Each time she finished a line, the music seemed to respond to what she had said. For example, as she read the line â€Å"All pirates are greedy,† the music in the background blared as though to signify the horrific trait that greed really is. When she read the line â€Å"All pirates cry,† the music suddenly became softer and let her audience know that pirates are people too and they really do have feelings. The intensity of the music made an okay book seem unreal and amazing. To prove her point about the effectiveness of music in life, she also brought up the example of the significance of music in movies. From the scary horror flicks of today to the older Alfred Hitchcock movies to Gone with the Wind, music plays an immense role in the emotions felt while watching a movie. Imagine the music that plays as the protagonist slowly creeps up the stairs toward the monster hiding in the bedroom. The intensity and volume of the music let us know that we are supposed to be afraid for this person and their safety. As soon as the tension is released through the actor’s escape or some other form of success, the music quiets, becomes more cheerful, or may even cease all together. A scary movie just wouldn’t be the same if it were watched without the music, nor would a great romance be so heart-wrenching if the music didn’t swell in the background as the lovers were reunited. Realities such as this make me sure that I am not the only person who feels the effects of music on them in their everyday lives. In fact, I have only met one or two people in my life who don’t like to listen to music while they drive. No one I know has ever told me that they don’t like music. I would venture to say that enjoying music is probably innate in us as human beings. Although each person has a distinctly unique taste of music, people still like to listen to it and enjoy it. My own personal experiences and attitudes to music have stemmed from my own life and relationships. My new husband and I just finished putting up our very first Christmas tree together. I was pleasantly amazed when he flipped on the radio to Christmas tunes and began singing along to them with me. These holiday songs are only another example to me of how powerful music is. As soon as we starting singing while we were putting up ornaments on the tree, our moods were lifted easily from the stress of looming finals and another Christmas working in retail. Although this is the first year I won’t be spending Christmas at home, I know that all I will have to do is listen to the old familiar notes of â€Å"Holy Jolly Christmas† to feel right at home.