Van Halen

Ok...so I'm just home from going to see Van Halen in concert in Philadelphia with a drummer-friend of mine. What a great concert! Musically, it knocked me out...I was consistently in awe of the playing, the songwriting, the performing, and the power in the music. There was also an angle to it that was meaningful to me because it took me back in time to when I was 13 and hearing Van Halen in concert with my MOM (my first rock concert)....and all of the 'teenage wisdom' that I brought to and took home from the experience.

In part, I felt old tonight...(look at me...35 and still thinking I can "rock out"). And in part, I felt younger again (really feeling that rock and roll energy that got me so fired up as a teenager). Funny how music can do that. I like the fact that I got deep to Van Halen songs when I was 13. I like the fact that I get deep to Mahler symphonies at 35. I like the fact that both musics make me think about my life. I love the fact that I could talk for hours about Van Halen and Mahler as much as I love the fact that sometimes talking about either is not necessary at all...I just love how they both sound.

Today in Winds & Percussion, I mentioned that the key element for me in keeping me energized about teaching music is continually finding ways and having opportunities to still be moved by music. Let me tell you...my experience tonight has me geared up all over again.

Sitting to the right of me at the concert was a kid no more than 12 years old. He was there with a man I assumed to be his Dad. As the concert got going, I watched the Dad start to "rock out"...and I watched the son cover his ears and sort of look at his Dad as if he was thinking, "man, my old man is nuts!" About an hour in, the son started to fall asleep (kind of hard to believe considering how loud it was). The Dad, in noticing this, shook his son awake during Eddie Van Halen's featured guitar solo. I watched the Dad point toward the stage, then look back at his son. He then started playing "air guitar" with the utmost intensity and sincerity, trying to show his son what Eddie was doing. At that moment, the Dad was a music teacher. Seconds earlier, the son was falling asleep...but Dad was in a moment of glory. Eddie was playing, Dad was in awe, and he somehow knew his son had to "get it". I can imagine the Dad's thinking..."Are you kidding me?...sleeping through Eddie Van Halen?...No way...He's gotta hear/see/get this!" And there was Dad, trying to find some way to tune in his son to what Eddie was all about.

To me, this was beautiful.

The way I like to see it, Dad saw something important in this music. Maybe, like me, he thinks the music "rocks" just as much as he loves how it makes him feel nostalgic about his youth. But for whatever reason, he brought his son with him....to a loud rock concert, full of 30-40-50 somethings, to hear a bunch of 50-something men play music that changed the Dad's life. And in that moment of Eddie's solo, I saw the Dad become a music teacher, air guitar and all....he wanted his son to see what he saw...to have him look through his eyes...to have him hear through his ears. I don't know if the son 'got it' or not. But I bet his son will remember something...the way things looked/sounded at the moment he woke up....his Dad completely fired up about a guitar solo...30,000 people in a room who were all temporarily mesmerized by a 52 year old musician wearing camouflage pants playing a beat-up guitar, or maybe even just the sheer intensity of being in a huge arena--full of smoke, nostalgic 'old people', and rock and roll. Somehow, the Dad knew his son had to experience this.

I feel like that Dad A LOT. Maybe that's why I want to be a music teacher.