Only relatively recently in our culture, about 500 years ago or so, did a distinction arise that cut society in two, forming separate classes of music performers and music listeners. Throughout most of the world, and for most of human history, music making was as natural an activity as breathing and walking – and everyone participated. Concert halls, dedicated to the performance of music, arose only in the last several centuries.
For his doctoral degree at Harvard, anthropology professor Jim Ferguson performed field work in Lesotho, a small nation completely surrounded by South Africa. There, studying and interacting with local villagers, Jim patiently earned their trust, until one day he was asked to join in one of their songs.
“I don't sing,” Jim said in a soft voice.
The villagers found his objection puzzling and inexplicable. The Sotho consider singing an ordinary, everyday activity, performed by everyone – young and old, men and women – not an activity reserved for a special few. Our culture, and indeed our very language, makes a distinction between a class of expert performers (the Arthur Rubensteins, Ella Fitzgeralds and Paul McCartneys), and the rest of us. The rest of us pay money to hear the experts entertain us. Jim knew that he wasn't much of a singer or dancer. And to him, a public display of singing and dancing, implied he thought himself an expert.
The villagers just stared at Jim and said, “What do you mean you don't sing?! You talk?!”
It was as odd to them as if I'd told them I couldn't walk or dance, even though I have both my legs. Singing and dancing were a natural activity in everybody's lives – seamlessly integrated, and involving everyone. As in many of the world's languages, the Sotho verb for singing (ho bina) also means “to dance.” There is no distinction, since it is assumed singing involves bodily movement.
A couple of generations ago, before television, many families would sit around and play music together for entertainment. Nowadays, there is a great emphasis on technique and skill, and whether a musician is “good enough” to play for others. Music making has become a somewhat reserved activity. The rest of us listen.
-excerpt from This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin