I have always been very musically oriented. Having poor eyesight can do that. In fact when I was delivering my first child (natural child birth) I didn't have a visual focal point to concentrate on, I had a musical one.
I grew up listening to classical, jazz and folk music, and elevator music easy listening, as it was in the 1960s and 70s. I didn't get to hear pop music unless it was on Ed Sullivan or the many variety shows we watched. Until 6th grade, when I got my own radio in my bedroom, and could stay up on Saturday nights and watch Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special.
In jr. high through college played cornet (a small trumpet) and/or was a vocalist. I love being exposed to all sorts of music, including world music. I really enjoy hearing strains of world music in popular US music.
Music is something I can close my eyes and lose myself in (and often do). It can help me cope with physical pain, tamp down my fears, etc.
That's not to say I'm not comfortable in silence, I am. A gift from a yoga teacher a long time ago.
I also am blown away when "western" music is re-imagined. The collaboration, sharing and exposure of all musical forms is one of the best gifts of the internet and world wide web.
A few years ago my nephew exposed me to this version of David Brubeck's "Take Five," done in Pakistan. The solo instruments are guitar, sitar and tabla (drum). (The drummer's hands move so fast as to become a blur.)
I have in turn enjoyed sharing it with others.
Tonight as I was just answering a few things on Facebook before heading to bed I saw a friend of mine had shared a video of a woman (Luna Lee) playing Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" on a Korean instrument called a Gayageum.
I sat, watched, listened totally gobsmaked, and knew I had to share it.
Enjoy!
Music is an international language that we can't afford to lose. Nor can we afford to cut it out of education programs and short change our youth
Thu Mar 28, 2013 at 9:24 AM PT: The original and at Woodstock