When music equals zero, it becomes invaluable
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:34PM Leaving Home, 6am
I was sitting at my parents piano in Boulder, Colorado at 6am on an August morning looking ahead to a long day of air travel with my two boys back to the Hudson Valley, NY where we live.
I closed my eyes and began to play, recording the piece with my phone as it came floating by. 
Revisiting the recording this morning I was reminded of the essential role that music plays in my life. While I have made my living in music since I was 15, at this point in my life music for me is not about making money, sounding great, or being recognized. Its about communication, therapy, and tapping into something larger than I can conceive of with my conscious mind.
As I listened to my recording today a rush of emotions came flooding back, feelings of love and yearning for my family and a life I left behind and it sparked a much bigger conversation in my head that I will now attempt to lay down to virtual paper.
The Larger Conversation
Ask any musician and they will tell you that the material value or music has been slipping for a long time. For most musicians who have been in the game for a long time, the game changed drastically after 9/11. Clubs stopped giving bands guarantees, CD Sales began their inevitable slog to obscurity, and fans of music started to look to new ways to find and share their music.
But while there's no doubt its been a tough ride for the professional musician over the past decade, there is much to be thankful for in the ruins of the wildfire that swept through and destroyed the industry. New technologies have emerged like flowers from a fire, and from that devastation grows a new awareness of the importance of music and art in our lives.
It has to be hard for a young musician to find any sort of sustainable future in music. Competition is fierce, almost anybody can make a recording, and there are less and less ways to make money.
But you know, it was hard in the 70's, it sucked in the 80's, and the 90's and early 2000's were crooked and unsustainable. Through each decade we've learned a bit more and I truly believe we are moving back to the natural and functional purpose of music which is to enrich community; to make people dance, sing, laugh and cry. Music is a language that we use to communicate with one another, its a prism through which we interpret the world. Even in a world where nobody makes a dime from music, its value to humanity is immeasurable.
Reader Comments (5)
Eloquent words and such a beautiful piano piece, Ben. Thank you for sharing this! :)
Ben, you conveyed your insights and feelings so well..thank you...I agree. Love to you and your shining family. cyndi
Hello Ben. Your piece was part of a Facebook posting by Melissa Axel. May I say that it was extraordinary and made me not only want to cry, but miss my own full grown children. One is in N. Carolina, the other in S. FL, and I see neither of them very often.
Your piece, although sad, was full of love and emotion (obviously for your loved ones). Thank you for sharing. All I can say is...Wow.
Thanks Ben. Wonderfully poignant and beautifully rendered. I feel a manifesto in the air...
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