Appreciating the Art of Music

Today I sat in my 2:15 PM Music Appreciation class. I have a love for music of all genres, so when I saw it as an option for classes I decided to take it. Honestly, I literally thought we would be listening to music and appreciating it. However, it’s much more than that. Our teacher often brings up stories of his past in relation with music and so far we’ve been listening to ancient and prehistoric music. He asked a very good question today. He began playing a song from the prehistoric era in which you just hear percussion and chanting. He began dancing and we all just stared at him trying not to laugh. He was feeling the music, and he kept telling us to close our eyes and enjoy it. He told us about how a couple years back, he played the same song to a group of kindergartners and they began dancing around. He played the same song for a group of third graders and they all danced around full of joy as well. So then he asked, “why aren’t you guys dancing?” We all shrugged and just stared at him. He said, “it’s because you’re afraid to be frowned upon in society. You’re told all the time, what you can or can’t do. What’s wrong with dancing? Nothing. You’re just afraid of what your peers would think. We live in a society where rhythm is established and if we dare to break that rhythm we are weird. Everyone says the pledge of allegiance in the same tone. Everyone prays at Church in the same way.” And that I found was very interesting. We often don’t think of just how limited we are in society, simply just because we care about what other people will say. There was absolutely nothing wrong with dancing, but even after he established that issue he then again asked for everyone to dance and feel the music. And again, no one danced.