Community
Any musician will tell you that half the joy of playing comes from playing with others.
Despite the vision some people have of a solitary artist in a practice room forever by themselves, music is definitely a team sport, a group activity. Music makers may train and be coached privately to build up our skills, but the best part of playing comes when other people are in the room making music with us. We go from harmonizing with our instruments, to harmonizing with our friends, to finally harmonizing for our audiences.
There is immense value in the unique kind of community that forms between people when they play music together. There is an almost mystical connection between people who make music together, especially if they make music together a lot. It’s the fertile seedbed of friendships, of group feeling, of the spirit of connection that creates strong societies.
Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse noted in his book The Glass Bead Game:
“Making music together is the best way for two people to become friends.”
Composer Paul Hindemith said:
“People who make music together cannot be enemies,
at least while the music lasts.”
Science is proving these truths. Current research suggests that music making, and particularly singing together, creates the sort of bonding that occurs in the brain between a newborn and their mother. This is the kind of bonding that is needed to keep a tribe of people united. It makes members of a community more invested in the wellbeing of each other, which primes them for survival. Blending your voice and your sounds with the sounds of others brings you closer to them psychologically and creates understanding and affection that goes beyond words.
Helping our students be conscious of the community feeling and bonding that is created when they make music is crucial. It increases joy. It generates a feeling of purpose. Neglecting active musical community is something we must never do; regularly bringing the value of musical community to our students’ attention is a must.
Community in Action
Everyone remembers moments of musical community in their lives. Here are some that come to mind for me:
I’m seventeen years old. I’m on stage with my high school jazz band, playing my heart out on the piano with one of the best jazz saxophone players in the country. He’s visiting the area and stopped by to play with our group as a favor to our director, a good friend of his. Every once in a while as we are playing, he looks over at me, I look at him, and there is a musical vibe between us. He plays a lick and physically appears to be tossing it to me. I catch it and riff off of the melody he is playing. The longer we do this, the more fun both of us have. We are communicating. We can feel it, the band can feel it, and the audience can feel it—they can’t help but join our fun.
I’m standing in front of a group of more than fifty elementary school choir students, and we are finally getting a harmony down that we’ve been working on for thirty long minutes. As the line comes to a close and I cut the group off at the last note, I hear a big collective intake of breath and loud whispers of “Yes” as everyone realizes that they just finished singing the section perfectly for the first time. I watch a wave of palpable relief run through the group and smile as I see kids looking at each other with big grins, pride, and fresh excitement. We feel more like a team than ever before, as much of a team as any basketball, football, or soccer team could be.
I’m looking out at a group of twenty or so high school flute players. I see my determination reflected in the faces of the individuals as we start to work on building speed in a tricky section. There is a tangible sensation of resolution in the room. We are all in it together, from the kid for whom all this technique comes easily to the one who is struggling and working their hardest. Everyone is sending each other their supportive energy through the air in looks and nods. We are a cohesive group, a clan, and we are all in it together.
If you’ve had experiences like this, you know that the adventure of music together is a pinnacle human experience. Don’t neglect giving these experiences to your students.
If we don’t create community-minded musicians, we could end up:
Robbing people of experiencing the joy of musical community and stealing the vision for what other harmonizing communities could be.
Leaving people feeling like their music is pointless, causing them to practice less and feel the need for music less.
What we gain from creating community-minded musicians
When a music student learns how to love the community of music making, they can:
Understand the deep value in working together.
Seek out collaboration from differently-abled people.
Appreciate and honor the viewpoints of others.
Learn to work through differences in opinions and come to a common consensus.