music in real life

My upcoming String Theory live shows at Bongo Java After Hours Theater in Music City (details one post below) are dedicated in equal parts to explaining some of music's amazing inner workings and about urging music back where it belongs - as part of a happy, healthy and roudned life and community. One of the unfortunate aspects of music is that too many parts of it set themslves apart and above regular people and their daily lives, whether the polished remove of pop music, the sometimes arrogant posture of jazz, the sometimes elitist aura of classical. The show is dedicated to anyone who ever was made to feel small by a music teacher and who quit as a result. It's dedicated to anyone who ever felt snubbed by a music store employee or an aloof record store clerk. Music has built a wall around itself even as the media has built a wall around it, but now that can change and is changing thanks to the internet and social media. It's time to define that change, embrace and amplify it. Much of that will come from refreshing our relationship with sound and the aural world. A life in music for the non-professional begins and sustains with listening. Playing is a more natural extension of that sensibility than most people believe.