Jeff Melsha Preident
A Little Bit of Rhythm and a Lot of Soul
I played little league baseball in 1974. Looking back at that experience, it was strangely similar to what later became a movie, The Bad News Bears. My “coach” had a continuous stream of obscenities and cigarettes hanging from his lips and he only allowed me to play in the field where I would do the least damage to the team - the bench. At the plate it was all or nothing for me - strikeouts or walks. I was on a team with fast and powerful athletes that wanted to win and I was only thinking about the root beer from the concession stand after the game.
One steamy, mosquito-infested night found our team down by three runs in the last inning. Our pitcher always had his hi-fi stereo cassette player boom box with him and decided it was time for Grand Funk Railroad to play “The Loco-Motion.” Our entire bench came to life! Everyone began to sing and dance, and player after player lined the baseball into the outfield for a hit. If you weren’t batting or running the bases, you were screaming the lyrics and climbing on the fences. Although I didn’t know the song (my only exposure to music at the time was the First Division Band Book), I recognized that music inspired the team to a come-from-behind
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victory. It brought out the “wild child” in each of us. From that point on, “The Loco-Motion” was our song. Our games became dance parties with baseball being played during the rewinding of the tape.
Music is far more powerful than language itself. The lyrics “C’mon Baby, Do The Loco-Motion” meant nothing, but the repetitive melody and the clapping on two and four inspired our team. We went crazy! I was not aware at the time that the pulse of the music and my neural oscillators were in synchronization. What I really cared about was that we would play our song, dance and scream, and soon there would be a post- game snack!
Why people love music and how it evokes emotion is a scientific mystery. The ability that music has to affect and manipulate emotions is undeniable, and yet largely inexplicable. A piece of music may be emotionally powerful, and at the same time be experienced in very different ways by different listeners. The emotion created by a piece of music may be affected by a variety of memories and previous experiences, by the environment it is being played in, the mood of the person listening, and by the
culture they were brought up in. The quality of the performance is also a determining factor in how music stirs our emotions.
I find myself spending a lot of time deciding what literature to study with my ensembles. The desire to make every rehearsal and every teaching moment a valuable and memorable one consumes me. I use my “what-to- play” checklist for each ensemble:
What curricular needs can be addressed with the preparation of this piece of music?
Is there a specific teaching tool I can use in learning this piece of music?
What skills do the students need in order to be successful, and are we lacking those skills at this time?
Is this literature that I want my students to experience?
Are the rehearsals needed to prepare a quality performance available?
Will the students connect with this piece of music and is it relevant to their learning?
See MELSHA, pg. 10 MISSOURI SCHOOL MUSIC | Volume 71, Number 4
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