Calvin Anderson: Can He Make Music?

"Everything we do is music"

John Cage

I am not musically talented at all. I am however very fascinated by music. It holds an important part of my life, and it always has. I tried to learn how to make songs or learn instruments, yet I could never get it. I wish I could, and maybe one day I will. As of right now, I have spent most of my life listening. Not creating.

I thought for this project that I would try to make something close to more traditional music. I had no idea what I would do, but that was my plan at the beginning of the term when I heard about this project. 

After learning about John Cage and his work, I realized that I have not been just a listener. I am a creator. And I have been a creator my whole life. I just wasn't thinking in the right mindset. 

When I think of music it makes me happy, I enjoy listening to it. So with this new perspective that anything I create could be art, I thought of what makes me happy (and can also produce a noise). I immediately thought of the bridge above Drew Street, between Ormsby and Colman. This is really random and I don't even have any particular happy memories on the bridge, but there is something I like about it.

I discovered that if you run your hand along the railing it creates a really fun sound, almost like a xylophone. I do this almost every time I cross the bridge. I always pause the music I am listening to and run my hand across the metal bars. I just find this really fun and it makes me smile every time I hear it. This is also the reason I listen to my music on Spotify, it makes me happy, so really they aren't that different. I think it is kind of ironic that this whole time I was creating music and I have been turning off "actual" music to listen to my Bridge Song.