Making Money from Teaching Music

‘May my life be exalted

May my law be cherished

May my strength be increased

May my tomb not be readied

May I not die on my journey

May my return be ensured to me’

(Early Irish invocation for protection)

In myths about the origins of words and writing they often come from a god, a trickster or both. Language often troubles the gods, as in the case of the Greek Pantheon, or the humans are just too noisy, but words are never something humans have thought up themselves, but were gifted to them. Remember in the Judaeo-Christian book, ‘in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, (and more telling) the word was God’

Language is powerful and having language gives one power. Has language been debased in the modern world, where seemingly the only ones who know its true power are politicians and people in advertising? Words do create powerful images and they change people’s minds, but not by reasoned debate. This is the big mistake of the logical liberal academics that have taken the intellect to such a lofty place, that it is totally lost and disconnected from the way the human mind is influenced. Emotive words contain power that evokes responses that are not intellectual, the whole of creation seems to run on desire, but we have taken an idea that we through our intellect can control that world, well we cannot! The power of words lays in the emotional response, the way that words empower and raise the senses, both for good and ill is subliminal.

It is useful when pondering why some songs have great power , and often it is the lyrics that do this. Lyrics that are full of great imagery or a call to action, like the Beatles ‘All you need is love‘ where love is used as a mantra, are very powerful. There is no logical argument here, just by repetition you have to think of love. They are not saying why do you need love? Or you should love me.

Other examples such as ‘We will rock you’ and ‘Wild thing’ create and emotional effect by describing the feelings, not mentioning them, you can make people feel the emotions by describing. For example ‘Walking back from your house, walking on the moon’, relays the feeling of weightlessness that love can bring.

In Ireland and Wales the bards would not only be celebrated but also feared by what they could do with words. If words have power, then that is as true now as it was then, maybe that should be your aim as a musician, to be celebrated and feared in equal measure. In the 1960s governments were deeply worried by the power that young musicians such as John Lennon and Jim Morrison had. Maybe we should start aiming words at people who seem to rule our lives.