Music is a universal language. Some people say this, and sometimes people will roll their eyes at this statement, but it is true. You can listen to a piece of music in another language, or with no words, and get a sense of the piece. You might not know the circumstances for which it was written, but you can feel the piece’s emotions and understand if a composer is hurting or if they’re angry or whatever else they’re trying to convey to the audience.

There are different musical styles all over the world. Most of the classical music in North America is inspired by Western European classical music. At least, that’s the way it once was. Now, there are hundreds if not thousands of musical styles all represented by a portion of our society. Everyone can find music that interests them. The international language of music is becoming a bigger part of our lives than ever. The ability to have music in an instant makes the “language” easier to speak.

I’ve recently gotten into listening to Indian classical music, and I feel a connection to it, even though I’ve never been anywhere near India. Doing research on George Harrison, as I spoke about last week, introduced me to Ravi Shankar, a great Indian classical performer who greatly influenced George Harrison. Ravi Shankar recently passed, and it made me sad to know that such a great musician was gone, but his music will continue on and people, like myself, will continue to connect to his soothing sitar playing.

Music passes through countries and influences societies, encourages desperate people to continue to believe, and inspires people. It gives people hope, dreams, and a sense of belonging. It’s a language in itself because it brings people together and gives people a language to speak that’s mutual in every country. Music is a powerful thing. Never doubt it.

Music is used to make people believe certain things or feel certain things. While playing video games, the music is essential to how you play. The music usually picks up in pace while you fight a boss in the game or it also becomes soothing while you're just searching for things.

This also happens in movies and TV shows. They use certain music in the background to make you feel a certain way or connect with a certain character. If music were not a universal language, how could these methods work on the majority of the population? It probably wouldn't, right? But it does.

The next time you watch a movie or a TV show, listen to the music, really pay attention and see if the music makes you feel a certain way. Or, instead, listen to your favourite piece of music, does that make you feel a certain way or change your mood? Welcome to the language of music.

Music is closely related to how you feel about yourself. Music and spirituality is my first post because it’s an important thing in my life and in my music experience. My own self-awareness and knowing who I am is an important part of knowing how I want my music to sound and how it relates to me and my life.

In September, I began university, a place of broadening one’s mind where everyone assumes that you realize the flaws in the structures of society, which could be true but I found it closed certain gaps for me. People tell me that they lose their own beliefs. I began to understand my own spirituality through music and through a broadening of my own experiences in university. I started to learn about George Harrison and how he felt all of his music as if it were surrounding him in his own being and every fibre of his life. This is what I have discovered.

Music for me is in every fibre of my self. I can feel it down into my soul and when I don’t have it in my life, I always feel like I’m missing something essential like food or water. For me, the music in my life has brought me to the point where I recognize that I have a kind of spirituality in my life. I believe that music comes from everywhere; it comes from every aspect of my life and inspires me to continue pursuing it so that someday this spirituality will transfer to another aspiring musician and they can have this feeling of completion.

Understand yourself and you’ll find the spirituality, no matter what it is, that you believe. I’m not just talking about religions. I mean believing in something that you cannot explain. I mean that feeling of knowing when you find your own passion, the thing that plagues your mind 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You don’t know how you know, but you just feel it in every fibre of your body and your mind. Find peace and find spirituality and your own passions. 

Now, go listen to some Bach and appease your inner band geek.