THe best thing about live music for me is that you never know what is going to happen. On big staged events the performances are usually well rehersed but you never know when the guitarist will hit a wrong chord or when the singer will slip or trip or something. It's not that I'm looking for something bad to happen but that the possibility that something might happen during the performance which wasn't part of the act is part of the entertainment value of in the performance for me. I think I'm on to the realms of chaos theory here.

I was brought up in a musical environment with my Grandfather on fiddle and singing, my father on piano, me singing and playing guitar and my sister on flute. We used to do lots of Jazz numbers together as well as songs from musicals. My sister and I used to do lovely harmonies together. Since my Grandfather died and my sister and I live in different countries, that part of my life is no longer, but now I play and sing in sessions in Belfast. I could not live without music- I would go crazy.

I never used to understand when someone said they couldn't sing. The phrase "tone deaf" never had any meaning for me. I noticed at school, however, that people with strong voices like myself, were encouraged, but those already lacking confidence were put down even further. This is a terrible thing to do. I remember I spent a few hours with my one "tone deaf" friend and I had her singing reasonably in tune by the end of it. At least she knew more about how to get pitching in her voice. I believe that everyone can sing. More often than not they have little confidence in themselves or they just don't like the sound of their own voice.

I began to understand this more a few years back. Basically I was hanging around singers who I felt had better voices than me and who were much more confident than me. A couple of times I sang and I didn't go down well and I lost a lot of confidence. I'm glad to say that this period did not last long and it did allow me to concentrate for a while on playing, but I'm back singing again with a vengence.

As for live music reflecting culture; I agree, we don't lead the type of lives that allow us to sing freely during our working day. We reserve music purely for entertainment and pay money to see bands or listen to recordings in restuarants/ nightclubs etc. One of the problem is that there is such a wide variety of music types and people tend to box themselves in to particular types. I was particularly offended when a acquaintance of mine refused to allow any Irish traditional music on the tape deck although I had to put up with hours of his music. Compromise is usually the best approach but for some people certain music types do not rest well on their ears. So unless you are in a likeminded or open-minded group, communal music and sing-a-longs are often difficult.

There is so much to be said on this subject i could be here for days. We could really get to the essence of "why do we make music?" but I'll leave that for another thread (or discussion forum).

Slan

LAoise.