Music: An Essential Ingredient to Life
Over the last 50 years, scientific research has
proven what we have always known to be true: Music, both
listening to and creating it, are an essential part of the holistic
human experience. If you think that's an overstatement,
close your eyes for a moment and envision your life without
music. Imagine a birthday without singing, a sports game
without "We Will Rock You", and a wedding where a triumphant and
beautiful soundscape is replaced with silence. And while you
are at it, stop singing in the shower, humming that catchy tune you
heard on the radio, and tapping your toes to the songs in your
head.
Our experiences confirm that we are hard-wired to both interpret
and express our life experiences through music. Even those of
us who are not "musicians" (an assertion I would whole-heartedly
challenge) find ourselves creating or recreating music in our daily
lives, even if we would never want anybody else to hear
us.
A survey of a diverse set of cultures worldwide shows us that this
is not just a modern or Western phenomenon, made possible by radio
waves and iPods. Even non-technological cultures use music to
express and stir up emotion, share stories, and
worship.
Historical records from the most ancient cultures show that music
played an important role in their daily lives. An entire book
of the Jewish and Christian Bible, Psalms, is devoted to songs
expressing a vast range of human emotion and experiences.

Music as self-expression
Although listening to music can bring great joy, it's nothing
when compared to the experience of creating it yourself.
Creating music allows us to express the inexpressible and describe
the indescribable; it is the key that opens the door to human
emotions that have never found their way into spoken vocabulary,
but that still have a seismic impact on our
lives.
When using music as self-expression, we are emotionally healthier,
our minds become clearer and we better understand ourselves, our
emotions, and the world around us.
Because of these reasons, and many more, I made a decision to
devote the most significant part of my creative energy to helping
kids tap into the joy of making music. I started Resound
School of Music with the love of my life, Stephanie, and we have
been providing families with skilled and enthusiastic music
teachers in their homes ever since.
We have a passion to see families discover the deep joy of musical
expression. Part of that passion is expressed through our
school blog. On it you'll find articles ranging from the
uber-practical to the more philosophical. We have collected
and reworked several of the articles for this eBook and hope you
find them both enlightening and helpful as you continue on your
musical journey.