About

“There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.” – Duke Ellington

“Where words fail, music speaks.” – Hans Christian Anderson

Good Music Speaks is a blog about music, whatever music I happen to be listening to at the time I’m writing. We have more access to music than at any other time in history. People carry thousands of songs around on their phone or iPod. There is also internet radio, satellite radio, FM radio, music in the concert hall, club, bar, elevator, dentist’s office and from the guy in the car next to me damaging his hearing with his radio up way too loud. There is music in the background we are hardly aware of, music in commercials, music we dance to, eat to, sleep to and finally music to which we give our full undivided attention.

It is that last sort of music, the kind we pay full attention to that I want to write about. Genre is not crucial, I don’t care if it’s classical music, opera, jazz, blues or whatever. Just that we are giving our whole consciousness to listening to it, and in return hope that it speaks to us in some meaningful way. I want to take each thing we are listening to on its own terms, not asking the music to be anything it wasn’t trying to be. This sometimes takes some context of the time, place and purpose for which the music was originally meant. In the end it is a sort of three-part conversation between the composer, performer and listener that comes together to define our musical experience.

I have to say thank you to all the friends and family that have encouraged me in this project and helped spread the blog around the internet on their social networks.  Most of all I want to thank my beautiful wife Judy for her love and support.  She has been my test subject, proofreader and cheerleader from the beginning.  This is in addition to being the household CFO, chief of operations, main political-spiritual-menu adviser and the great love of my life.  (Thanks babe, you are the best thing that ever happened to me!)

Hopefully you will find something worth reading here.  Maybe it will lead you to some good music that is worth the time to listen and let it speak to you too.

– Rich Brown

150 thoughts on “About”

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  3. Enlightening, enriching and exceptional. I love music with a passion. I enjoyed reading your posts; I consider them a sort of continuing educational endeavor. Thanks for stopping by Poemattic.

    Reply

  4. Thank you for liking my post. I’m quite a music fan myself, though I tend to lean towards instrumentals, country, old pop, new age, musical/broadway numbers and japanese pop. Music to me is a unique way of expressing oneself and I’m glad that you have found your passion in something that is so awesome! Keep up the good work! 🙂

    Reply

  5. I like seeing blogs, texts, things that I cannot cover with a short glance. Thus looking forward to reading your posts. I am an avid lover of classical music and opera.

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts in such detail and with such dedication.

    sila

    Reply

  6. hey thanks fer checkin the best ole blues sax man still alive

    general b stands fer bebo short fer beboping i once when i was in high school tooka road trip with a buddy to the Great sands dune national monument in his old healy sprite two seat ole sports car and he would beboop out a tune maybe12 beats n i would come baack we were flyin down I-25 and i would copy it man that would be the you know track of my career up to then…the t stands fer the as bebo the clown i walks tall thru the clouds but now General bebo the Hope is her and ready to play…. give me the beat boys to soothe my soul, i want to get
    thru the rock n blues my band is called Fragile/repack
    God bless again,
    Big G

    Reply

  7. Thanks for dropping by my site. Any blog that starts with an Ellington quote (I think we have every CD ever made of his music… and my husband and I heard him live, that’s how far back we go…) has to be a great blog. I’ll look forward to reading more when I can snatch a few minutes.

    Reply

  15. Thank you for visiting my blog. I like your words about music and there is one more kind. For me anyway. The sound of nature.

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  18. Thank you for noting my blog. Looking at yours, I see we think alike. Amen to creative spirits!

    Reply

  19. Great blog. Thank you. When I lived in Canada, raising my daughter alone, I always turned on the MET broadcast on Saturdays, full force. My 10-year-old daughter glibly declared that my doing so amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment”…. Then I put on headphones, and continued listening. She called me a dork. If this was not sheer jealousy, of operatic proportions, I don’t know what….;>)))

    Reply

  24. Thanks for the like on my post, ‘While the World Gently Weeps’. I’ve just started reading your blog, but I like what I’m reading so far.

    Reply

  27. Great post and I also love your sense of humor (guy in his car next to you damaging his hearing) and your deep love, respect, and appreciation for your dear wife. Keep up the good work! 🙂

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  28. “I want to take each thing we are listening to on its own terms, not asking the music to be anything it wasn’t trying to be.” – Very nice! Although music and the love for it is such a big part of my life and although the subject of treating artists with respect is so important to me, I needed some serious self-development before I got around to that mind set. If we applied that to everything in our life, we’d live in a happier world… Thank you for stopping by our blog, I will sure take the time to read through yours!

    Reply

  38. Liked the jazz coverage. Take a look at BachTrack.com in the UK. They have lots of opera coverage. Your writing is better than a lot of what they put up. It is primarily a reviewing site for music, opera , and dance. I have started to cover dance in L.A. for them recently. Steven

    Reply

  39. Rich
    As an amateur musician and long time music lover, I find your blog quite readable and thought provoking. Especially liked your piece on language and music. I’ll be back. Thanks for stopping by AHintOfLight.com.
    Pat

    Reply
  40. Pingback: Celebrating the blogs I follow #2 | Maria Holm

  43. I love finding treasures unexpectedly! Thanks for liking my poem thus leaving a bread crumb trail for me to find your beautiful space here. Looking forward to diving more deeply into music through your eyes and heart.

    Reply

  44. Hi Rich,
    Excellent site you have here. Great write ups as well. I love your About page, it’s a beautiful thing! We are kind of similar in ways regarding that. I’m foremost about getting folks re-engaged with their music. Encouraging them to listen to music instead of just hear it.
    I started my blog with zero support and have never done anything like that before. I’m a terrible writer, but having a blog is a good way to improve.
    The most important thing is the music, first, last and always. We humans are nothing without music.

    Reply

  45. If you consider the original rock musician, Antonio Vivaldi, you may detect that there are four seasons of music. And they are all, each one in their own way, the soundings of life’s most profound inspirations.
    Keep your discovery going here, and surely you will cover them all expressively as time goes by.

    Reply

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