My Philosophy of Music

The Big Picture: Restoring Culture

Many of us feel that our society can’t keep going the way it’s going. As a musician, I’ve always wondered what role music plays in creating change. It’s taken me years to come to my current understanding.

Our society depends on everyone. Our daily lives create our world. Whether you’re a politician, a plumber, or a full-time parent, you are playing your part every day. Everything in our culture comes from millions (or in a global society, billions), of people doing their thing. This is true regardless of your political beliefs.

The question is, how do we support ourselves and each other to live our best life? We can’t dictate decisions from the top down, because what’s right for one person might be wrong for another. Everybody has to make their own choices. And as rational as we’d like to be, making decisions isn’t all about weighing pros and cons. It’s an emotional, spiritual, wiggly-wobbly process. 

This is where culture comes in. Culture helps create people, people make choices, and those choices change the world.

I believe modern western culture is incomplete. It is missing many elements that most traditional cultures have. Namely: communal music-making, storytelling, knowledge-sharing, and spiritual practice. These are the things that make us human. Other creatures have their responsibilities, and these are ours.

The “communal” part is important. Most of us use the internet, rather than relationships, to consume music, stories, and knowledge. And the internet is spiritual kryptonite. 

When we get our music from streaming platforms, we have very little relationship to the person making the music. In a traditional culture, not only would we be in the same room as the musician, but we’d know their whole life story, and they’d know ours. They’d be family. And we wouldn’t just listen; we’d play, sing, or dance along. In that context, music is much more powerful.

Imagine gathering every night with your favourite people to share music, stories, knowledge, and spiritual practices. And imagine being guided all the way by experienced elders who have your best interests in mind. What would your life be like if you were supported by this community every day? What realizations would a song give you? What would you learn from stories? What would you learn about your local community and ecosystem? How would you grow spiritually? 

I believe humans are meant to gather this way regularly. When we don’t, we damage our mental health and our ability to navigate life and make decisions. 

The problem is that when modern westerners gather, most of us are not skilled in these arts that are essential to being human. We’ve spent our lives learning a specialized career, doing errands and chores, and watching television. Even the skilled ones, like professional musicians, are trained in a modern version of the art, which doesn’t always translate into community gatherings.

This is what I mean by restoring culture: relearning the communal practices that make us who we are. It will be awkward at first, but we have to start somewhere. These practices make us fully human, and help us bring our whole selves to this mysterious and ever-changing life.

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How to change our musical culture

My expertise is in music. So I'll focus on changing that aspect of our culture. Here's my understanding of how to do it.

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1) Affirm that everyone in musical

For many, the first step is to let go of the idea that they’re “not musical”. You might label yourself as “tone deaf”‌ or say that you weren’t born with an ounce of musical talent. If this is you, I want you to read the next paragraph carefully.

I have met many people just like you, and I have heard them sing. What I’m about to say might be hard to believe, but I’m kind of an expert. I have a music degree, so I’m fully qualified to determine whether someone is tone deaf. Here’s the thing. Every person I’ve met who claimed to be tone-deaf? They’re not. If you’re wondering whether you’re tone deaf, here’s a simple test. Do you enjoy listening to music? If yes, then you’re not tone deaf. 

2) Gather 

There are so many ways to make music together. We can play fiddle music at the pub, we can strum acoustic guitars around a campfire, we can sing in the park. All of these are great options. 

I believe we need to see communal music-making as the main attraction. Concerts and recordings are nice, but they are beside the point. Unfortunately, concerts and recordings have all the prestige in our culture, because they allow musicians to package and sell their art (nothing wrong with that). They are seen as more important and more prestigious than playing music around the campfire. 

Let’s flip that script. Next time you meet someone, and they say they play music, don’t ask them if they have any concerts coming up. Ask them if they belong to a musical community that gathers regularly. That’s where the real magic happens.

3) Learn

After you gather in community, ‌the lifelong journey of learning how to tend it begins. For a musical community, this could mean learning an instrument, diving deep into one style of traditional music, learning a bunch of simple songs that help you in your daily life, or whatever feels right to you. 

There are no “shoulds” here. Follow your impulses. 

Also at this stage, we remember that music is just one aspect of culture. There are many aspects, and they aren’t meant to be separate. Many traditional cultures used music during storytelling or spiritual ceremonies. Some of us will be inspired to learn these ancestral practices, and others will be inspired to combine these elements into something new.

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