Wrap up...

Although I had experienced several different aspects of music from some different cultures, I never imagined the extent to which some cultures truly value the use of music. The part of this class that intrigued me was definitely the concept of the work songs. Throughout our journey through other cultures, I realized that each culture had a form of a work song, or something that seemed to have the same concept behind a work song. I’m sure that we must have some type of a work song in our culture, I hope. It just seems that the work songs can really be a driving force in “enjoying” the completion one’s daily job.

I have realized much about our own culture. For instance, what we consider “normal” here may very well be “odd” to someone who is not originally from this culture. Therefore, it is much easier for us to explore music of other cultures when keeping this in mind, and instead of viewing their music traditions as “odd”, we should just try to approach everything with a bit more of an open mind. I’m not sure if this really makes sense, but basically, I am trying to say that to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” musically, we should try to push out what our culture presents as the “norm” (which is easier said than done in some cases). I also realized that far more of our “popular” music has been heavily influenced by music from other cultures than what I originally noticed. I also think that other cultures seem to be able to express their emotions through music much easier than what we are able to do in our own culture. For the most part, our culture seems to be more reserved in this department compared to other cultures.

This course has inspired me to learn more about the use of music in other countries as a healing practice. I have always been interested in politics, and attempt to keep up with the politics of not only the United States but also of other countries around the world. Having already known some background information regarding the Music Therapy program in Jordan, I am now more interested in how the politics of that country are playing into the development of their program. On a more musical side of future exploration, I am interested in exploring more Chinese music. I just really love the pentatonic sound of the music, and find the use of the pentatonic scale and some rhythmic differences very unique within the structure of each piece (I.e. the use of turns, trills, syncopation).