GOOD MUSIC MAKES YOU TAP - CHARLES PETTINGLE

Many people have wondered what good music is. It is one of the most subjective question society had to contemplate. There are occasion where what one considers as great music sounds like noise to other cultures or demography. You might have listened to a friend’s playlist and concluded that he or she had bad taste in music. Why don’t we explore this question in the lens of a Ghanaian pianist, Charles Pettingle.

I met Charles at a wedding ceremony (the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Idun) playing classical love tunes to colour the mood. He was playing “Beauty and the beast” by Celine Dion on the piano to usher the bride, Nana Kay. Not long into our interview the question surfaced once more, how do you determine if a music is good? 

He surmised that anything that induces you to move some part of your body is good music: “…you start enjoying it, you start nodding your head, tapping your feet that is a sign of good music.”

This analogy brings the movie “Home” to mind: what happened to the aliens when they heard music for the first time.

Is it not just enough for music to make you move, or for you to respond to it emotionally? It seems to be more than that. For those who play music, like Charles, it is an outlet of “happiness or heat”, the different hues of emotions.

“The piano with its beauty and power is the perfect medium for expressing the performer’s art, drama and poetry.” - Van Cliburn 

A pianist like Charles Pettingle know first-hand how a piano channels ones emotions. For that we asked for the worse emotional state of mind he had ever played in and he replied:

“Anger. I was just angry at the whole world. People thought it was an anointing.”, he breaks off comically “It wasn’t an anointing. I was mad, I was so mad. But after playing the concert I was fine after, I was very fine.” He did not recollect the song he was playing at the concert.

Charles enjoys creating music and well as playing it. “I play a bit of classical, I am not too deep into jazz. Basically, anything with a good message and a good musical content. Anything at all whether it is Chinese, reggae or juju music. I am not really into dirty content music: all about sex, money, drugs.” Playing the piano makes him a better producer. It helps him get new ideas to improve other people’s music.  

“For me, music is a treat, just like someone will buy a cake to treat themselves. I like to treat myself with good music”

When all is said and done, we all respond to music depending on our emotions, experiences and cultures. There are times where a music is universally loved, other times, the music has more meaning to the one listening hence it is good music to that individual. Any music that makes you nod your head or tap your feet or conduct your body to its rhythm is a good music. 

I hereby burden myself thus to give this verdict; if beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, conclusively good music lies in the ears of he who harken.