When my father was still alive, he was a professional musician. He spent many nights entertaining other people, performing at weddings, parties, bar mitzvahs, stage shows. He had come from a very long line of musicians, as far back as anyone could remember, music was their life’s work. He took great pride in the fact that he could play several instruments very well. Me, I could barely read sheet music and wasn’t very good at playing any instrument that my parents wanted me to learn. I’ve always felt that if the music teachers would teach the students how to play the popular music of the times, instead of the music from decades long past, more young people would be interested and motivated to learn to play an instrument. But who wants to learn how to play “Greensleeves” on the guitar when all of the “in” kids are performing beat box and the Harlem Shake?
Whenever I go to a convention or seminar of some kind where the producers felt the need to bring out some musical entertainment, I’m always interested to see the band members actually playing their instruments. Instead, one person sits at a keyboard that has a music recording software computer program loaded into it and they just pick out a previously recorded play-list. Sure, the music is good, but I’m just not as inspired to applaud in between songs. I wonder if my father would have embraced this technology, or if he would have hated it.