Mr. Thomas posted
an interesting question on
Yahoo! Answers that hit me like a load of bricks:
Through performing, music education and electronic media, the San Francisco Symphony and I strive to make classical music accessible to all. How has classical music impacted your life?How has classical music influenced my life? Wow.. so many ways.
Classical music is where my roots are. That is what I was originally trained in, and I studied it all through school. I was going through some of the hardest times of my life back then and what I found in this genre is too much for me to describe. It was my home, a safe haven for me to channel my emotions- all the anger, hurt, and sadness I felt. It was my fantasy land. It showed me the past, days when I was happy. And it showed me the future, when I would finally be free from those troubles.
It also taught me a lot of the technical stuff- key, time signature, things like that.. and most of all, it taught me that the possibilities are endless. If you can dream it, you can write it, and this can be applied to everything in life, not just music. I learned to believe in myself.
Though I don't listen to classical music nearly as much as I once did (I fell in love with the hard rock/metal genres), I can say that it is the reason I listen to amazing, underrated bands like Nightwish, Dream Theater, and Dimmu Borgir, and not all that mainstream pop and rap you hear on the radio. It is the reason I write my own music with a bit of an epic, classical theme. I still have my fantasy world, but with rougher edges, a little more anger and sorrow to feed the darker side of my mind.
I wish everyone could get a proper education in classical music. It teaches people to appreciate music for what it really is, not for the "uber hott!" singer who hires someone else to write lyrics and put them to a simple, unimaginitive beat and melody. Real music is about expression and storytelling (not necessarily classical or metal.. there is great music in all genres).
It is what I live for.
