A relationship with music is a love connection that comes and goes right from the source. After all, the expression of source is vibration. Music is vibration, as is life energy itself.
Today, that dance of connection has instant access to every imaginable expression, across time, geography, class, culture… even species.
For one who is a music composer, this palette of influences is both infinite and accessible at the same time.
For one who is a songwriter, you add the element of poetry through lyrics, and infinity becomes multi-dimensional.
Songwriting has always been like journaling to me. I’m in the midst of my 85th album, and around 60 of them have been original music. These songs, which began when I was 15, and have continued to my current age of 53, are a musical tapestry of my ever-changing window onto the life experience, and the associated feeling tones.
The process of expressing such views and feelings in music triggers an introspective inquiry and sparks an opening to a creative vortex where self-consciousness falls away. From this place, the song begins to appear, often quite suddenly. In such moments, the songwriter feels like the stenographer, witnessing and documenting the appearance of the song.
Uncountable styles & cultures have arisen from this unique moment of expression. From cantors to conductors, from musicologists to the popular music industry itself… the opinions, rules and regulations, are as endless as the songs. And they each have their place.
You can get lost in all the other viewpoints. You can get confused, and somehow think the approval of others is important to the validity of your experience. If you do, you can have the fun of rediscovering your unique experience and clarity. Regardless of any of that, the only thing that matters is your personal “intercourse” with that vortex of music. That is equally true for the music appreciator and the performer/creator.
The only challenge to creating music is doubt… doubt that you can do it… doubt that it will be worth anything… doubt that you’re good enough to be even trying…
If popular music has told us anything across the ages, it’s that you don’t have to be good to make good music. A billion songs can use the same chords or notes, and every one of them can still contribute uniquely to the ever-expanding whole.
What have I learned from all this? That life is not a f…ing achievement test. Lessons come as they will. Learn what serves you in the moment, and take that into the next one… or not. Everything brings you to your life. Better to just keep turning one’s attention toward what feels best. Life responds to our feelings like an answered prayer. Thus, it’s just more fun when you feel good. The better it gets, the better it gets.
