Contextual Valuation

It's been almost a month since I last wrote in the blog. I have been busy after Chinese New Year plus I have to finish up all my work before I go for my operation. What I'm writing today is something more lighter, definitely not some lace with criticism. Today I would like to tell you about one hobby of mine - Music.

Maybe some of you might be surprite to know that I have deep interest in music. In fact, I do play some music intruments, some rather amateurishly. I do play piano, something that I hate when I was young because of the long hours of practise sessions. Somehow I was able to pull myself together to finish until grade 8 and decided not to further it to diploma level. I also play violin and guitar, most of them are self- taught.

But we are not talking about what instruments I played. I going to write about how I view, appreciate and evaluate music, which is very much contextua. It may have some bearing in other aspcets of live since we always do valuation in each and every we do, though you may do it unconsciously. To me, it's really simple, one can evaluate and appreciate musics in three different contexts. Firstly, purely for entertainment, second, as an artform and lastly as an intellecutual exercise.

Most people tends to regard music as entertainment and rather unconsciously, make it into a lifestyle. I, for most of the time, consider music as an entertainment and very much like a hobby. At some point of my life, I have music as a lifestyle where it played a role in me making decisions, developed a culture surrounding it. I used to and still jeer people listening to a certain genre of music especially sung by certain good looking boy next door band yet do not know how to sing and definitely those who sing chinese songs with certain ang moh accent. I classed myself superior listening to some of my favourite musics.

Sometimes we even adopt a certain behaviour normally associated to a particular music. Those were the days .... and seeing the kids nowadays, perhaps we are not altogether different. Though superiority or technicality of the music may have a basis when considering music as an artform, I find translating it into an attitude now foolish. At some point in my life, I realize that most of us listen to music as entertainment and should just simply accept it as that with a secondary value.

When I declare this to my aunt, who is a sort of musician, it disappointed him and somehow we grew a distance apart. I hope he understands and respects my decision of seriously not pursuing a career in music and putting behind my music interests. Anyway, we still talk to each other on music, not that I totally left it. Seeing music as entertainment is not meant to be derogatory; it is simply the choice of an individual and neither it is a black and white situation. I recall how my cousin (the aunt's daughter) got upset when I say music is to me entertainment. To the musician of course, music is considered a serious matter of study and research and it is to be performed professionally. Even to the music enthusiasts, music appears to be an artform where a degree of criticality of music appreciation comes into play. Thus music has all these dimensions that gives the shape of its appreciation.

To demonstrate this, let me say that there is certain class of music that I enjoy listening to without getting intellectually aroused (the entertainment class). There is another class of music, which I enjoy but the reason of enjoyment is different. Here I look for creativity, the complexity of the music without losing the pleasure of listening (between artform and entertainment). There is another class of music, which I might not listen to in my spare time but nevertheless would consider it important as an intellectual exercise and if I listen to it, it will probably for academic reasons. Another perspective would be that I may find playing a certain music satisfying but a passive listening would not arouse me.

Contextual valuation applies to many other things in life, not only music. The only thing is that most of the time, we tend to think the other person place value on things the same way as us. It is this individual numbness that makes us so, thinking that the whole world is centred on oneself. Over the years and in particular in the last month or so of contemplation, I begin to realize the value of understanding of our weaknesses and the importance of multitude of meanings. As we become more aware of this, perhaps we grow wiser ...