Freedom & Music

I'm discovering how strange freedom can actually be. I know we all say that we want it, demand it, deserve it. But sometimes its hard to know what to do when you are actually free.

I'm working with some students and trying to get them ready to play in the worship band at our youth group. They're in Jr. High and, for the most part, have been classically trained as musicians. This is fantastic! They know they're stuff, how to read sheet music (which is still a foreign language for me), play it perfectly and can play multiple instruments. They're amazing!

But there's this other way of learning music, let's call it the Hack Way of Music, or the Self-Taught-Guitar-Player Way. (That seems about right...) When these guys get together they don't have sheet music but something called a Lead Sheet. Its the lyrics of the song with big letters above the lyrics that show you what musical chord to play. It's not always in perfect rhythm, or is it necessarily in the right place with the lyric. You have to kind of know the song to play along. There's a basic music structure shown on the Sheet, but there's also a LOT of room for filling in with notes of your own choosing. In fact it usually sounds better if you add notes to the basic structure.

This is where I've noticed the strange taste of Freedom. The Classically Trained Jr. Highers are playing in our band, which subscribes to the Hack Way of Music. The students are used to getting Sheet Music, and having each note that they play written out for them. They are not used to playing whatever sounds good or feels right in between things, as in the Hack Way. I'll encourage them to be creative, to fill in the space between the beats with other notes, to show off a little bit. Their reaction is really funny.

They're kind of scared.

It's that look on their face of, "OK. I think I can do that, but I'm not sure. I should be able to do that. How do I do that? Are you sure you want me to do this?"

Its innocent. Its humorous. And the more I think about it, in life, its true for me too.