August 22, 2005
Magazine celebrates the amateur musician
A magazine for amateur musicians called Making Music is entering its second year of publication in Syracuse, N.Y., and they've sent out an interesting news release to mark that milestone.
So I've headed over to their site to check things out, and it's worth a look. The point of this publication is to cater the community of musical hobbyists out there who aren't schoolchildren and who aren't trying to have a professional career.
That leaves a good many people who picked up an instrument in their younger years, and perhaps now they miss it and wish to get back into that uniquely wonderful feeling of playing music. All genres of music appear to be represented; there's a piece about a community orchestra in Rochester, N.Y., and another about the Mamapalooza Festival, in which moms who still want to kick it slap their rocking shoes back on and jump back on stage at the head of bands with names like Housewives on Prozac.
I recall with real fondness most of the times I've spent playing in various musical ensembles, as a pianist, a French hornist, a guitarist, and even as a member many years ago of a handbell choir. Not only is it healthy to join with others to bring a good piece of music into being, but you can also learn a lot from your fellow scrapers, blowers and pounders.
If the magazine is able to help people get together and form a string quartet, or a jazz combo, or a speed-metal band with anarchist leanings — more power to them. The making of music is for many people shrouded in mystery, as if its practitioners had some access to black magic rituals that gave them insights into the Mixolydian mode not normally granted to humans.
But music is, or should be, such a normal part of the human condition that it's a shame that people who want to join in the fun feel blocked by mistaken impressions of what it's all about. I can't recall where I read this, but some wise person once pointed out that the root of the word "amateur" comes from the Latin for "lover," and it's in that spirit that a real amateur best approaches musical tasks.
The news release the folks at Making Music sent to us ends this way:
If you would be interested in taking advantage of a free year’s subscription (6 issues) to Making Music, please visit http://www.makingmusicmag.com/concir or call (800) 724-9700 x116, and mention that you heard about the magazine in the Palm Beach Post.
I don't know that the Making Music people would consider finding out about their offer through this blog as having heard about it in the Palm Beach Post, but I think it's close enough, and it's worth a shot, if anyone out there is interested. I'll check with them later this week and post an update when I get an answer.
In the meantime, head over to your closet and dust off that violin.
