Saturday, October 01, 2011

Playing for Change fan club

Back in February of this year, I was introduced to the music of ‘Playing for Change’ – collaborative music made by musicians from around the world.

Playing for Change seeks to “inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music.” Not only do they travel the world recording musicians in India, Brazil, Israel, Russia, Cape Verde, Jamaica, Cuba, etc. – they give back through a nonprofit corporation which builds music and arts schools in communities that are in need of inspiration and hope – communities in impoverished places like Nepal, Mali and South Africa.

The first time I watched a Playing for Change video I was entranced. The video, filmed mostly outdoors in locations around the world, brings together artists and layers their music into a mosaic of harmony and collaboration.

After I watched a few clips on youtube, I bought the album on iTunes. The first one came with 7 videos –songs like ‘Stand by me’ and Bob Marley’s ‘One Love’ and ‘War/No more trouble’.

Their second album was recently released and I’m loving it. This one comes with 10 videos and songs, as well as a short video about the Playing for Change project and foundation.

And it’s not just me who enjoys watching these videos. Miya has become a fan in her own right. She can identify many different instruments (great variety) as well as nationalities of musicians. Sure, I don’t know how meaningful things like nationality is to her at her age, but it’s still pretty cool to watch these with her and talk about people from around the world coming together through music.

Since Miya and I have been enjoying watching and listening to the music, I thought she might like making some of her own. So we took a trip to Ten Thousand Villages and bought two little flutes – one from India and one from Peru, as well as an Indian percussion instrument. Great, noisy fun.

I hope that some day I can take my daughter to some of the places we see in these videos and that we can hear, first hand, the music from around the world. Till then, we’re loving the videos and huge fans of the movement.

No comments:

Post a Comment