We are the music-makers...

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dream."

- Arthur O'Shaughnessy.

I love music.

I love my Ipod. I love my music collection. I love my CDs. I love attending concerts - it doesn't matter what sort of music, and I'm as much a fan of Elgar as AC/DC. John Denver rocks my world, and Wendy Rule - well, she rules!

But most of all, I love to create music. In these tough financial times, we all need music more than ever.

Yet more than ever, we find that we can't afford the latest CD, the recent release by our favourite artist, the newest tickets to whoever is touring. Sometimes it is even too expensive to go out to a hotel and listen to a band. By the time you factor in drinks, and entry, and transportation, your wallet takes a real hit. Professional music is getting too rich for the everyday Jane's (or Joe's) blood.

It's time to think differently about music.

It's time to remember the past. Before there were Ipods, or Top 40 charts, or CDs, or cassettes. Back before LPs, and reel to reels, and gramaphones. Before recorded, paid-for, professional recorded music. Back to when practically everyone played, and sang, and just did music because they loved it.

There were families like mine who have a piano and sing together at night. The piano - or the guitar, or the harp, or the harmonica, or the accordion - took the place of television and radio and stereo and boxed, packaged, prefabricated entertainment.

There were people like my brother who plays his guitar just for the hell of it, and doesn't worry if he is good or not. There were people like my friends who are choristers and sing in choir - not because they are religious, but simply because they love to sing.

There were people like me who made up songs and wrote them down and shared them freely, not caring for profit. There were people like a friend of mine who conducts a university choir without payment, and often without recognition or acknowledgement, simply because he loves to share his joy of music.

There were people like my grandma who sang all her life in church choirs and barbershop groups. There were people like the MOTS who is a really good pianist, but will accompany anyone who loves to sing and needs a handy piano player.

It didn't matter if you weren't 'recording quality', because no-one was recording anyway. It didn't matter if you didn't draw an audience, because music wasn't generally a for-profit exercise. Music was just a part of life, as basic to our existence as going for a swim at the beach or kicking a footy around at the park or going for a walk in the forest in the evening and smelling the scent of the trees and the earth.

In these days when the professionals are costing too much, we need to remember O'Shauhnessy's words. Because they hold truer than ever. We are the music-makers. We are the dreamers of the dream. We've only forgotten it, and let our dreams sleep a little while.

Music doesn't belong to just a few - a talented, wealthy, chosen elite who can make a living by selling their product to us, the plebs who listen and admire and kowtow and buy posters and tickets and merchandise.

Music belongs to all of us - to the most awesome voice in the choir that soars to the heights and makes you feel as though you could fly, through to the least able person who just grooves along with the beat yet still has a great time.

Fact is, it really doesn't matter if your compositions will never be as good as Beethoven's. Beethoven is dead - he's not writing any more - what our world needs now is you, and me, and our friends and family. All together.

It doesn't matter if you'll never sing like Dame Nellie Melba, or like Freddie Mercury. They're gone too. But you're here. You have a voice, and our world is aching for melody, and for rhythm, and for the sound of fresh voices that come from the real world - not from a world of recording studios and echo chambers and 'fixit' machines that alter pitch and tone and everything else beyond recognition.

As for me, I know I'll never be a great composer. I know I'll probably never write a 'Magnum Opus' that makes the music world sit up and listen. But that won't stop me writing music, and it doesn't make what I do produce any less valuable and beautiful. I'll write till I go deaf and can't see the notes any more and my brain is soup and my voice is gone. And I'll probably write even beyond then, because I love music so much.

I know I won't ever be a great singer either. My voice will never make men weep (although the choristers next to me might cry a little at my top Cs!). I'll never be center stage in a ballgown, singing The Queen Of The Night, but I'll sure as chickens have a go at it at home, and laugh at my inability to hit the top notes! Who knows - maybe one day!

You see, it really doesn't matter. Because when I do sing, I sing with joy and with happiness, and I love what I do and I do it with others who also love to sing. That's what it is all about.

Music isn't supposed to be about perfection, although we can admire those who do it well, and enjoy performances that come close.

I think the professional music industry has forgotten this. They've become so obessed with getting everything perfect that the soul of music - humanity's intrinsic flaws - has been lost from it. So much of the modern music scene may as well have been written and performed by computers. It probably has been.

Judges and Critics

We hear so much perfect music in our everyday that we're often afraid to make music ourselves, for fear of falling short in the comparison. I hear the girl next to me who sings with the beautiful voice, and I become afraid to sing out, because I worry that my own voice lacks the same beauty and clarity. Another person hears a great guitarist, or pianist, and so is afraid to play in front of his friends because he fears he will be compared, and in comparison look sad and low.

We fear to make music because in our networked world we see and hear the excellent and extraordinary musicians of the world daily. This is a shame. Too many adults are afraid to sing, and afraid to dance, because others are watching and possibly judging, comparing us to the one-in-a-millions who live in some distant country and who are really quite irrelevant to our own reality.

Perhaps, above all, we are afraid of the harshest judge of all - ourselves.

In choir we sing quietly, afraid our mistakes will be heard, and we will feel foolish. So we make no sound, and the person next to us does the same and is also quiet, and the whole choir, instead of singing loudly and clearly and learning by our mistakes, mutters and learns nothing. Because of a stupid fear that someone, somewhere, might think we are silly.

My life changed as a chorister when I realised this, and I started to sing out. I'm still not great, but if I make mistakes, so what? Everyone else is making mistakes too - that is what rehearsals are for! And there isn't a singer alive who didn't pull a dud note here or there!

In the end, I realised I'd rather sing out and enjoy my voice and my contribution than forever be what a friend dubbed a "plastic alto" - you can see these people in choirs, but you'll never hear them!

We are all musicians. Every one of us. Go to any babies' music class, and you'll be convinced of this. Every single baby is loving the music, wanting to participate and make sound, and be a part of the music and the rhythm and the fun. It is only when we become ridiculous adults with inflated egos and insecurities that the musician inside us hides and disappears.

We are the music-makers!

Get music back in your life, if it isn't there already. The options are endless. Even if you can't keep a tune, you can still share in the joys of real music by singing carols at Christmas with friends (trust me - your friends won't care if you're off-key!). Try learning to play a hand drum like a bodhran - it doesn't require pitch but does require good co-ordination! Handbells can be fun too.

Join a choir - you really don't have to be religious! I've sung in choirs since 1992, and the vast majority of choristers I know are not churchgoers, or religious in the slightest. They just love music.

There are choirs that focus on swing music, on gospel music, or on any type of music you care to name. There are also choirs for all different age groups, so don't think for a moment that you will be the only 20 year old stuck in a room of 60-somethings - or vice versa! Check out your Yellow Pages, the Internet, or your local University.

Start, or join, a band. If you play an instrument already, check out cafes and hotels that have noticeboards. Often bands that are looking for instrumentalists or vocalists will post notices.

Dust off the piano, if you have one. Get it tuned, and take some lessons. If you already play, schedule a regular sing-a-long with friends. Or if you play guitar or another instrument, invite some friends over and sing together. It really is fun!

Another great alternative is hiring one of the famous musicals on DVD, and singing along with it. Sure, this is getting the professionals to help you out a little, but so what? 'The Sound Of Music' and 'Grease' (among others) are both available in sing-a-long DVD versions. Both are available at good DVD rental stores.

Connect, connect, connect...

Creating your own music is completely different to listening to boxed music. Compare being in a choir or a band to listening on an Ipod - the one builds community and friendship, the other is a solo activity where you are tuned out from the world. One connects, the other is an almost complete disconnect.

I'm not saying that Ipods are evil. I love mine, and I love listening to music. But I think that a balance is called for, and I know that in my own life I spend far more hours in choir each week (between 9-11 hours) than I do listening to recordings (possibly 3-4 hours). On top of that I rehearse at home, compose music, and sing with friends on an ad hoc basis.

The amount I do isn't for everyone, but a balance between creating and receiving music sure is a good idea. Even a couple of hours of music-making a week is a wonderful experience for anyone who loves to be with friends, have fun, build community, and have a good time.

So what am I trying to say?

I'm saying that music only comes alive with participation. Music is meant to be shared - and you can share music with little or no money at all. Music is environmentally-friendly too - from music libraries that lend scores out through to just improvising with a hand drum and a group of people who want to sing, it uses few resources, yet contributes greatly to wellbeing.

Bring music into your life, and you won't regret it. If you are musically active already, introduce a friend who hasn't had this in their life to the joys and wonders of making music. Music is a gift that I give thanks for every day. There are millions of people all around the world who agree with me - we'd like you to join us!