We Can All Make Music.
Changing perceptions - our biggest challenge
It’s not a big deal getting
people to sing. The reason for this is
simple: it fulfils an innate desire (and fulfilling an innate desire is always
pleasurable!). There are, however strong,
dark forces present in our culture which conspire against “everybody
doing it”, but given the opportunity, we know everbody would.
We asked ourselves “Why is
this so?” We realised pretty
quickly the big challenge we’re facing here is changing decision-maker’s
perceptions.
When a mayor, a Premier, a Prime
Minister or an Minister of the Arts hears the word
“music”, what image springs to their minds?
Odds are,
it’s a professional orchestra playing in an Arts Centre, a rock star
performing before thousands of people, or listening to a CD recording.
Our challenge is to change that
initial, stereo-typical mental image.
Instead, what if decision-makers’ first thought was of twenty
people standing in a circle in a small hall singing together? Or of the opening and closing moments at a
public meeting being filled with a mass of the attendees voices singing
harmoniously? Or of
extended family members joyfully making music in their kitchen?
Then, perhaps, music might begin
to regain its essential place in the scheme of things.
But there are even greater
conceptual challenges facing us:
What if the word
“community” inspired images of people singing together?
This one: What if decision-makers reflexively used
music to build a bridge over the deepening fissures developing in our society,
re-uniting people and encouraging harmonious activity, the development of
excellent inter-personal skills and the annihilation of gender, age, race and
sexual preference issues?
Possibly the greatest challenge
of all is the addition of group singing to the list of basic human needs.
Health, safety and education are
among the things we immediately recognise as basic rights and necessities. Singing, at first glance, would appear pretty
insignificant in comparison. And yet, for our earliest ancestors, it was
integral to all three. Have things changed so much that group singing is no
longer relevant or required? The answer
is no, group singing and music making is just as important now as it was then,
we have just forgotten.
How can the perceptions of
decision makers be changed? In the face
of the resources devoted to the dominant and more commonly accepted images of
music, it's tempting to throw in the towel, but we would do so at our own
peril. If we do, we may lose an innate
human capacity that is at the core of the way we learn to become social beings
and, above all, to enjoy doing things with
others.
Our experience leads us to
believe that the best and possibly only really effective way of convincing
those whose job it is to care for society is to actively engage them in the
process of singing with others. Admittedly, this is an amazingly big call
– afterall, it's hard enough to imagine a bunch of politicians in a
singing circle, let alone to getting them singing in the privacy of their own
homes.
But try it we must.
So now you know our fundamental
advocacy aim: to find ways into the congregations of power brokers and to get
them singing.
Perhaps then we can make a sound world together.
CMV - making a
sound world together.
©
Community Music Victoria Inc.