I always thought that the music would help me through hard times. But then - going through a very tough time - it hasn't helped me really. I mean the music itself. Playing tunes and that. But it did show me I had wonderful friends (which I had made/met through the music). I am very grateful for their friendship, good words, enormous help. But I was a bit sad to see that the music itself was of little importance during that time. Though I always thought it was most important in my life. Any experiences? Sabine
Sabine
Very much so. I started trying to learn during a bleak time years ago. I never really did learn to play well, but the hours of playing a tune or two over and over were very comforting and therapeutic in a meditative way. And as you say Sabine, there are the secondary benefits of being pulled into other people's social orbits and just of getting you out of the house. They say a fire in the fireplace is like having another person in the room and something similar goes on when you sit down alone in an empty house feeling a wee bit blue and pick up your instrument.
The music has helped me through a few painful times in my life. I find that I throw myself into the music when I'm facing something difficult...it's a way to escape the pain, sadness,whatever. Sabine, you said that you realized what wonderful friends you had through the music...so, yeah, the music did help you get through a tough time, didn't it?
My answer is...possibly!
I don't really know since I've been playing for quite a while now. If anything it gives you some kind of focus when everything else is out of focus. Something you still have intact when everything else goes pear-shaped. So for that reason alone it's worth maintaining the skill sets and not allowing them to languish.
Depends how hard the times are. Music (as a practice and as a meditation) requires concentration, which can put you in a transcendent place. Concentration is interrupted when your head keeps revisiting painful places (problems, neuroses). So, music works when it's given your full attention. As for myself - yes.
When my father was murdered in 1997, the only connection to ITM locally was that I had been going to the slow session with recorder (yikes!) and sometimes my harmonica for more than a year prior to his death. Eight months after he died I was given a loaner accordion, a BIG 4-voice Baldoni, and I haven't stopped since, to the chagrin of many.
Yes, the music helped me focus my attention away from grieving, it gave me breaks from having to be doom and gloom all the time. It wasn't JUST the music, though. Being part of the musical community certainly helped that process, but I wouldn't have had them if I hadn't had the music.
So, yes, the music helped. It still does when times get rough.
It helps me to grieve as much as it helps me to celebrate... It seems to be there in the air all the time, a necessary oxygen that gives vitality to my life, along with other things...
Believe it or not, I’ve only just realised that I started playing music after my mother died.
Looking back its obvious just how much it helped me. I was in denial about her death and it wasn’t until I physically played music that I realised how I felt, hearing the music as I played it, feeling it. . It’s a hard thing to explain, but music is a vessel for your emotion.
On the plus side though, music has also made the many happy times since more enjoyable.
There is nothing better that coming home after a great day and diving into some up-beat reels or singing your happy little heart out.
Music is a powerful expressive tool, yes it can definitely be used to help through some tough times, but it can also be the cherry on top of good times.
When I got laid off of a great job, I really got depressed. I didn't know what to do. I found an adequate job and would walk to work. There was a wooded park on the way where I would stop play, watch the river flow and think. I got a bunch of real good ideas as I played there that have brought me to where I am now. Music lifted my spirits, allowed me to think and inspired me.
I came to the conclusion that there may be many people who have better jobs than I do, but I can play music. I have the time and detacment from the world to be able to concentrate on music. The Ant or the Grasshopper? I am a grasshopper and am glad, very glad.
I think it helps if music is part of your everyday life. Something you do without thinking about it. It's not so much the tunes but expressing yourself.
When times are really bad I tend to listen to songs more. My favourite singer is Sandy Denny still. Might work for others as well.
Always loved it, but then later on it saved my life. It became more important, it made me feel alive again after a real bad patch. My seven years of bad luck you could say.
Juniper.... my deep sympathies. The music does help, it makes you turn your attention away from yourself.
BTW, my dog's name is Juniper, she also saved my life....her and the music! I actually wrote a jig for her! Juniper's Jig.
It gives you something to do when there's nothing to do. It can't be taken from you when everything is taken away. It won't betray you when you've been betrayed. It is happy when you are sad. It is something you win at when you are losing at everything else. It is your friend when you are friendless. It gives you something to love when nobody loves you. It is always there when there is nothing.
And when there's nothing to like, there's nothing like it.
A scruffy looking drunkard outside a tent at Stonehaven folk festival told me, re: playing music, "Be fecked with your Prozac, if I could prescribe this to anyone I would. The best cure for depression ever". Turns out he is a GP.
I think that playing music is great therapy in a lot of ways. It can help you get your mind off of problems. It can be a joyous thing. And it can be almost like hypnosis when you relax and concentrate.
But if you are having difficulties, and are RELYING on the music (or drinking heavily, or anything else) to make your problems go away, then you're just covering up the problem, and not dealing with the situation.
Trad Head, I think you have found the real key to it - the relationships that you build with people through music can be even more powerful than the music itself when it comes to helping you through a bad time.
I came back to the music, having barely been outside the house for music unless someone was paying me, after I got the sack. I both needed to do something to make me feel good about myself again, and had the time, and especially the energy, to do something about it
4 and a half years later I am a much happier person, the music has rekindled a social life for SO and myself, and I have twice the energy I had before.
My answer is; yes, definitely.
When my husband was in chemotherapy, I had 2 small children, and a difficult teaching job on an Indian reservation that included a 3 hour daily round-trip commute.... the Tuesday night session was the one moment of my week when I could escape from the stress and anxiety of the rest of my life.
Now my kids are nearly grown, my husband is healthy and I have a much easier job closer to home... but the music is still my stress-reliever
I use music to get through hard stuff, but I think of it more on a day-to-day basis rather than the rough periods in life that some of our members have experienced.
For example, on those days when I just don't feel like producing another wretched transcript page (I'm a court reporter; I generally work at home at least two days a week), I will do a certain amount of work, pick up my fiddle, play a few tunes, do another chunk of work, pick up fiddle -- you get the picture. It's rank self-bribery, and it works.
You are all very lucky people that the music helped you that much. Friends that were gained through the music were/are very essential to me - going through chemotherapy, surgery, radiation and not knowing what will come. Maybe playing itself will become more important again for me, too. Thanks for your replies.
For me music is the pretext that allows the connection to the people. But it is the people that is the most important thing. On our deathbeds we can maybe count houses, cars, money and even tunes we've played.......and maybe that might make some people happy. But if you lie on your death bed and can smile and count the memories of laughter, tears and the things you shared with family, friends, lovers and session buddies.....I think we all know who we'd count richer in terms of life and living!
I think it's very easy during difficult times to remember many of the negative aspects of your past.....i.e all the things you should have done and those you did do that you shouldn't have . Of course, this just makes everything that much worse.
So, I always try to remember the good times and postive things and music has always played a big part in that. Not only Irish or Scottish music either.
Playing music, of course, helps you too..but what if the problem is that you can no longer play an instrument? Therefore, you have to love "music" for itself.
Yes, the music has always helped. If it is not, try learning a new tune, or a nice new aire. Or practice a new technique. Sometimes, just getting lost in a new challenge helps me feel better, other times it is revisiting an old favorite.
Best wishes,
Has the music helped you in hard times?
Has the music helped you in hard times?
I always thought that the music would help me through hard times. But then - going through a very tough time - it hasn't helped me really. I mean the music itself. Playing tunes and that. But it did show me I had wonderful friends (which I had made/met through the music). I am very grateful for their friendship, good words, enormous help. But I was a bit sad to see that the music itself was of little importance during that time. Though I always thought it was most important in my life. Any experiences? Sabine
Sabine
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by Irish Trad. Head
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
Very much so. I started trying to learn during a bleak time years ago. I never really did learn to play well, but the hours of playing a tune or two over and over were very comforting and therapeutic in a meditative way. And as you say Sabine, there are the secondary benefits of being pulled into other people's social orbits and just of getting you out of the house. They say a fire in the fireplace is like having another person in the room and something similar goes on when you sit down alone in an empty house feeling a wee bit blue and pick up your instrument.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by sergeant fox
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
And if that fails, you could always try drinking heavily.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by sergeant fox
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
yeh but i do the 3rd comment with the tunes, dosent quite work tho!
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by S.McMullen
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
I use Kevin Burke's words: "Music is a release from the tyranny of conscious thought". It's very therapeutic indeed, so my answer is yes
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by TradLad
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
The music has helped me through a few painful times in my life. I find that I throw myself into the music when I'm facing something difficult...it's a way to escape the pain, sadness,whatever. Sabine, you said that you realized what wonderful friends you had through the music...so, yeah, the music did help you get through a tough time, didn't it?
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by irishfiddler32
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
It's always there, in sickness and in health...
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by ceolachan
In good times and in bad...
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
Hope you're through your hard times, Sabine.
My answer is...possibly!
I don't really know since I've been playing for quite a while now. If anything it gives you some kind of focus when everything else is out of focus. Something you still have intact when everything else goes pear-shaped. So for that reason alone it's worth maintaining the skill sets and not allowing them to languish.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by Alf Tupper
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
Depends how hard the times are. Music (as a practice and as a meditation) requires concentration, which can put you in a transcendent place. Concentration is interrupted when your head keeps revisiting painful places (problems, neuroses). So, music works when it's given your full attention. As for myself - yes.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by drone
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
When my father was murdered in 1997, the only connection to ITM locally was that I had been going to the slow session with recorder (yikes!) and sometimes my harmonica for more than a year prior to his death. Eight months after he died I was given a loaner accordion, a BIG 4-voice Baldoni, and I haven't stopped since, to the chagrin of many.
Yes, the music helped me focus my attention away from grieving, it gave me breaks from having to be doom and gloom all the time. It wasn't JUST the music, though. Being part of the musical community certainly helped that process, but I wouldn't have had them if I hadn't had the music.
So, yes, the music helped. It still does when times get rough.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by juniper
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
It helps me to grieve as much as it helps me to celebrate... It seems to be there in the air all the time, a necessary oxygen that gives vitality to my life, along with other things...
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
Believe it or not, I’ve only just realised that I started playing music after my mother died.
Looking back its obvious just how much it helped me. I was in denial about her death and it wasn’t until I physically played music that I realised how I felt, hearing the music as I played it, feeling it. . It’s a hard thing to explain, but music is a vessel for your emotion.
On the plus side though, music has also made the many happy times since more enjoyable.
There is nothing better that coming home after a great day and diving into some up-beat reels or singing your happy little heart out.
Music is a powerful expressive tool, yes it can definitely be used to help through some tough times, but it can also be the cherry on top of good times.
Oh man I love music.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by session savage
Ps juniper, my condolances.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by session savage
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
When I got laid off of a great job, I really got depressed. I didn't know what to do. I found an adequate job and would walk to work. There was a wooded park on the way where I would stop play, watch the river flow and think. I got a bunch of real good ideas as I played there that have brought me to where I am now. Music lifted my spirits, allowed me to think and inspired me.
I came to the conclusion that there may be many people who have better jobs than I do, but I can play music. I have the time and detacment from the world to be able to concentrate on music. The Ant or the Grasshopper? I am a grasshopper and am glad, very glad.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by feardearg
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
I think it helps if music is part of your everyday life. Something you do without thinking about it. It's not so much the tunes but expressing yourself.
When times are really bad I tend to listen to songs more. My favourite singer is Sandy Denny still. Might work for others as well.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by kuec
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
Always loved it, but then later on it saved my life. It became more important, it made me feel alive again after a real bad patch. My seven years of bad luck you could say.
Juniper.... my deep sympathies. The music does help, it makes you turn your attention away from yourself.
BTW, my dog's name is Juniper, she also saved my life....her and the music! I actually wrote a jig for her! Juniper's Jig.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by irisnevins
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
Iris, post your tune for us!!
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by irishfiddler32
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
It gives you something to do when there's nothing to do. It can't be taken from you when everything is taken away. It won't betray you when you've been betrayed. It is happy when you are sad. It is something you win at when you are losing at everything else. It is your friend when you are friendless. It gives you something to love when nobody loves you. It is always there when there is nothing.
And when there's nothing to like, there's nothing like it.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by Ailin
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
There's no doubt about it - music has saved my life on a number of occasions.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by morning star
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
A scruffy looking drunkard outside a tent at Stonehaven folk festival told me, re: playing music, "Be fecked with your Prozac, if I could prescribe this to anyone I would. The best cure for depression ever". Turns out he is a GP.
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by Bren
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
I think that playing music is great therapy in a lot of ways. It can help you get your mind off of problems. It can be a joyous thing. And it can be almost like hypnosis when you relax and concentrate.
But if you are having difficulties, and are RELYING on the music (or drinking heavily, or anything else) to make your problems go away, then you're just covering up the problem, and not dealing with the situation.
Trad Head, I think you have found the real key to it - the relationships that you build with people through music can be even more powerful than the music itself when it comes to helping you through a bad time.
Pete
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by Reverend
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
Irishfiddler, I don't know how.... I will try sometime soon. Any hints in the meanwhile? Format, MP3 I presume?
# Posted on February 13th 2007 by irisnevins
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
I came back to the music, having barely been outside the house for music unless someone was paying me, after I got the sack. I both needed to do something to make me feel good about myself again, and had the time, and especially the energy, to do something about it
4 and a half years later I am a much happier person, the music has rekindled a social life for SO and myself, and I have twice the energy I had before.
My answer is; yes, definitely.
# Posted on February 14th 2007 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
When my husband was in chemotherapy, I had 2 small children, and a difficult teaching job on an Indian reservation that included a 3 hour daily round-trip commute.... the Tuesday night session was the one moment of my week when I could escape from the stress and anxiety of the rest of my life.
Now my kids are nearly grown, my husband is healthy and I have a much easier job closer to home... but the music is still my stress-reliever
# Posted on February 14th 2007 by azfiddle
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
I use music to get through hard stuff, but I think of it more on a day-to-day basis rather than the rough periods in life that some of our members have experienced.
For example, on those days when I just don't feel like producing another wretched transcript page (I'm a court reporter; I generally work at home at least two days a week), I will do a certain amount of work, pick up my fiddle, play a few tunes, do another chunk of work, pick up fiddle -- you get the picture. It's rank self-bribery, and it works.
# Posted on February 14th 2007 by cathrynb
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
Yes it does help me in a positive way.
Absolute good medicine.
# Posted on February 14th 2007 by Ray Mariani
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
You are all very lucky people that the music helped you that much. Friends that were gained through the music were/are very essential to me - going through chemotherapy, surgery, radiation and not knowing what will come. Maybe playing itself will become more important again for me, too. Thanks for your replies.
# Posted on February 14th 2007 by Irish Trad. Head
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
For me music is the pretext that allows the connection to the people. But it is the people that is the most important thing. On our deathbeds we can maybe count houses, cars, money and even tunes we've played.......and maybe that might make some people happy. But if you lie on your death bed and can smile and count the memories of laughter, tears and the things you shared with family, friends, lovers and session buddies.....I think we all know who we'd count richer in terms of life and living!
# Posted on February 14th 2007 by TheCurvyFiddle
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
I think it's very easy during difficult times to remember many of the negative aspects of your past.....i.e all the things you should have done and those you did do that you shouldn't have
. Of course, this just makes everything that much worse.
So, I always try to remember the good times and postive things and music has always played a big part in that. Not only Irish or Scottish music either.
Playing music, of course, helps you too..but what if the problem is that you can no longer play an instrument? Therefore, you have to love "music" for itself.
# Posted on February 14th 2007 by Johannes J
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
In the miner's strike, I earned more busking than working down the pit (but that's OK in Summer - Winter is different).
# Posted on February 14th 2007 by geoffwright
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
Sabine,
I have been meaning to get in touch with you,
but I can't get that old email address..
I hope you are well.
Send us an aul email through this site.
Stefan
# Posted on February 14th 2007 by Hugo Chavez
Re: Has the music helped you in hard times?
Yes, the music has always helped. If it is not, try learning a new tune, or a nice new aire. Or practice a new technique. Sometimes, just getting lost in a new challenge helps me feel better, other times it is revisiting an old favorite.
Best wishes,
# Posted on February 14th 2007 by AlBrown