Undergraduate / The music has held a deep importance for me - the essay on what is the most important in my life [3]

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music has held a deep importance for me

It would be a lie to say I wasn't at least a little terrified, standing behind the stage curtain and clutching my guitar. "Am I in tune? Will I remember the lyrics? Will my voice crack?" Our little 9th grade rock band had hardly played in front of a couple people, let alone a crowd the size of that afternoon's assembly. But when the curtains were drawn back and I heard the drumsticks click for the count-off, my worries and reservations were pushed to the back of my consciousness while I allowed a feeling almost unlike any other to possess me: a bubbling amalgamation of adrenaline, nerves, and a certain magical profundity that can only accompany music. In that moment and countless others besides, music has held a deep importance for me, for I regard music as the most universal art, the people's art. It has the potential to communicate concepts and emotions that are felt deeply but defy any attempt at direct articulation, and its universality creates poignant shared experiences between individuals. There's music created with deliberate intention, like the angsty fervor of a punk show or the bittersweet melancholy of an old jazz record; there's also music to be found in quotidian sounds - the cheery chime of songbirds at dawn, or the bustling restaurant's clinking of plates and forks among a dull roar of conversation. Wherever it may be found, there is a musical passage for all of life's vicissitudes, each holding a mirror to life itself.