Yesterday, Vancouver’s Sarah McLachlan hosted a concert called Voices In The Park. The concert was held in world-famous Stanley Park, and was a fund-raiser for the Sarah McLachlan School of Music. The school offers free music lessons and programs for at-risk youth in grades 4 – 12.
McLachlan was able to get some very big names for her concert, including: Bryan Adams, Stevie Nicks, and Hedley. However, perhaps the most universally known person there was someone not generally thought of for his musical abilities.
Although President Bill Clinton is a saxophone player, he didn’t play horn last night. Instead, he flew in from New York just to give a 4 minute talk to the crowd on the importance of music education.
Regardless of your political leanings, President Clinton’s message is a universal one. One I think should resonate with everyone.
In light of all the recent research in the area of brain activity, and how music has a positive effect on brain development and rehabilitation, it is not a reach to say that as musicians, we would not be the people we are today, if we had not studied music in our youth. President Clinton was not being hyperbolic when he said:
I think it is very unlikely, that I would have ever become President, had I not been in school music from the time I was 9, ’til the time I was 17. It taught me discipline and creativity. It made me see the world in different ways. It made me understand things in different ways.
President Bill Clinton, speaking at Voices In The Park, Vancouver, BC, Sept. 15, 2012
Regardless how good you are, or how long you have played sax for, playing music is good for you. Therefore, no matter what else is going on in your life, make sure that you make enough time to get some practice in. Your brain will thank you for it.
Trust me, I speak from experience. Any recovery I had from my mysterious neuro attack in November 2006, was in part aided by my being a musician.
Unfortunatelly, in many Countries there is not instrumental music in highschools, but history of classical music only and never reach the contemporary times.
In addition to that is hard to find quality instruments at affordable prices, such as: saxophones or guitars.
Artists, as painters, sculptors, architects in general, tend to embrace other ways of expressions as well and so they develop the musical skills, with the mentioned difficulties….as myself had to learn saxophone in a bad and expensive instrument….
In comparission, Americans and Canadians they have lot of resources, at affordable prices, that, mostly, they disregard….because they don’t see profit on it!
I agree with you Pablo. I also think in North America, students are not nearly as grateful for the instruments that they have access to, as they should be. I suspect that’s because we live in a society where access to consumer goods is plentiful and expected, and this then continues on to the musical instruments we learn on.
Horns that are stuffed away in closets and forgotten about after only 1 year, or abused by students, would likely be very much appreciated by professional musicians in my developing countries. We need to look no further than than those places where people are making saxophones out of bamboo or more famously, the Vibratosax out of polymers, because “real” saxophones, or saxophones out of metal, cost more than the average family earns in a year.