My Favorite Things

Being a professional musician, it can be hard to nail down my favorite things.  I have influences in all sorts of music, from Metal to Classical, Jazz to Country, and so on.

While my students have all listed their favorite things from a listening perspective, I'll choose to choose my favorite things from a musicking perspective (don't you love it when the music philosophers use music as a verb?)

My favorite thing, by in large, is to make music for people.  Whether it be as the conductor of a high school concert band, a folk-y artist, or the lead singer of my rock band, MGI, I simply LOVE to entertain people, cause emotional and physical reactions, and to reach people.

Within that realm, my absolute favorite musical feeling is watching people smile, laugh, and dance while I'm performing for them.  I'm giving them a good time, and that's a great feeling...unbeatable, even.  While I'm still a neophyte at it, I can see performing being a large par of my life for the rest of my life.

If I had to discuss favorite bands, the list is long: Coheed and Cambria, Tool, Live, The Smashing Pumpkins, the Tea Party, and Rufus Wainwright have all earned the status of "Jones' absolute favorite bands" at one point or another.  To be one of my favorite bands, I have to CRAVE your music.

Up there close would have to be the Foo Fighters, Lenny Kravitz, Leslie Feist, Blur, Radiohead, Broken Social Scene, the Arcade Fire, and Modest Mouse.

So...there you have it.  Jones' favorite musical things...in a nutshell.

What is Music?

OK - Music to me is a tough thing to define.  The professional musician in me wants to say that music is sound and silence, made by voice or musical instrument (howsoever loosely defined), for the purpose of connecting one's emotions with others'.

That's way too vague for me.  Music is part of my being - it is my recreation, profession, and subject of much personal reflection.  Music is not only a noun but a verb as well - I music all the time, whether listening to it, recreating others' music, or creating some new music of my own.  Music's definition to me lies in how I use it and interact with it.  I don't just listen passively to the iPod, I step in time with music's cadence as I walk, I hum familiar tunes, and shout familiar lyrics from the top of my lungs.

Music plays such a central role in my life that I often fight against being defined by it.  I stray from musical neckties, names, and coffee mugs.  I keep music posters (generally) off of my walls, and try ever so hard to keep an open mind when other's ask me to listen to their musics, trying not to be the music snob my pedigree demands of me.  I even sing out of tune sometimes, on purpose, for laughs.

I play guitar and sing at social gatherings, around the campfire, and alone.  I teach large groups of students about music through voice, trombone, and the aforementioned guitar.  My group of friends?  My bandmates and their spouses and the people who've come out to see us play.  I even met my wife (also a music teacher) at band camp for crying out loud!

I digress.....

So - what is music to me?  Music is the blood in my veins, my sustenance, my drug of choice.  When I go a few days without conducting my students, I get cranky and go through withdrawal.  Ask me to go a month without playing with MGI?  I go stir-crazy.  Then I go in the basement with an acoustic guitar and sing my face off.

My favorite games for XB360 are Guitar Hero 2/3, and Rock Band.  My favorite PS2 games are Amplitude, Frequency, and MGS2/3 (so sweet guys).

I hope to music for the rest of my life.  God Bless.