August 24 – International Strange Music Day

Posted on August 24, 2019

"Listening without prejudice."

That's what holiday inventor and musician Patrick Grant urges us to do - at least one day a year.

Grant is convinced that listening to music that is strange to us (and maybe even music that is just strange, period) can help us look at ourselves or at the world a little bit differently. And it can help us to accept the world's strangeness, become more tolerant of strangers, become more positive about diversity in all ways.

What do you think about his theory? I rather think he's onto something!

Broadening your musical spectrum is what it's all about. It's fine if you especially love rap, or punk rock, or classical, or country - your musical faves needn't change one bit! But maybe you can enjoy listening to several different types of music, depending on your mood, on the activity, on the company. 

I learned that lesson when I noticed that my daughter loves the same kind of alt-rock that I love...


AND she loves the same kind of classic rock that I love...


BUT she also listens to, dances to, choreographs to, and loves so many more genres: classical, pop, hip hop, heavy metal, rap, musical theatre, and especially electronic dance music / house / trance.


Inspired by my daughter's wide-ranging musical taste, I have broadened my own taste by listening to hers...And I definitely like more music now than before. But today I'll have to really push myself to try new and different. Maybe opera? World music? Music made with water instruments, like this, or this, or this?


There is a sea organ in Zadar, Croatia.
It's the waves running over pipes that
makes the music!

I first heard a hammered dulcimer
at a Renaissance Faire...even though
it is not particularly appropriate to
Elizabethan England!
Do you know what a bagpipe sounds like? A didgeridoo? A hammered dulcimer? A theremin? 

Those are some of my favorite non-standard instruments - but they're common enough to run into in real life, I've found. You might even find some of them in a cool music store. If all else fails, check YouTube. 




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