It Only Takes One: The Relationship With Instruments
Imagine being a young child growing up with the desire of being a famous pianist. You continue to accomplish your dream by later being able to show the world what you know. By this time, you no longer just play one instrument, but you play almost all of them, and you can create your own music without requiring others to play with you. The instruments have become a family to you. They are now played by you, and you are the one in control making your own music with all the instruments you want, just like shown in One Man Band by Rudy Mancuso. The enjoyment of the rhythm created by him, and with the relationship he has grown with the instruments, to play solo creating satisfaction.
Taking lessons to learn how to play an instrument is very helpful, but what is the most helpful is the desire and the time you put into learning how to play. I myself play the piano; it is something I have always wanted to learn how to do. Reason being because I would see how other pianist enjoy playing and all the force, they put into. The emotions felt within every key played, and just going from being gentle to feeling high adrenaline. Rudy Mancuso shows us not only how he has been able to conquer playing more than one instrument, but he also shows the satisfaction of playing. Playing is not only to show the knowledge of knowing how to do it, but it transmits what may not be able to put into words just like Victor Hugo said, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” Ever wonder why famous pianist show so many facial expressions? Showing pain, happiness, sadness, and satisfaction of the well-played notes.
There were five instruments involved in the making of One Man Band. There was order and most importantly consistency. The consistency used to create a rhythm that captures an audience into appreciating the music. Most music videos we see today consist of lyrics, actors, and a show of lifestyle. Various individuals in fact have come to take music as something therapeutic and to identify themselves. For this reason, I have come to an agreement with Mancuso’s video. The focus is not the fact that there is no lyrics or that it is only one man playing all five instruments and controlling a recording system at the same time, but the pleasant look and feeling shown by Rudy Mancuso himself. When achieving a goal, we get a great feeling because we have accomplished something we wanted, and it is similar with this video. There is an accomplishment at the end and the musician’s emotions are transmitted to the audience.
This may not be your typical hype, rap, or sad video, yet it is still well served for its purpose. At first the music starts slowly with a catchy rhythm from the xylophone, and it is continued with the melody of a piano. As the rhythm accelerates, all the sudden it changes into something slow. Why include something slow into something that was fast at first? This drop in the rhythm got my attention. It grabbed it long enough for me to see that the music gets better and most of all to see how enjoyable the beat was. Creating something alone is hard, and then playing five instruments alone is even more capturing. Rudy Mancuso at first only wanted to be pianist as he stated in the Q&A video with Famous Birthdays, but then the dedication brought him to learn how to play more than just the piano. It brought him to become known for his musical skits, and for being able to perform live, opening a tour for Justin Bieber in front of thousands of people.
There may be other musicians that also started with a small dream, and then now are well known for their astonishing performances. Rudy Mancuso shows us in his video the importance of playing with a reason. A reason that brings us to enjoy music. He dances to the beat, with sweat glowing on his forehead, and fully focused on his purpose of playing the instruments. When it comes to playing instruments, you must become familiar with all its parts. The names of each piece, what they are used for, and how they will contribute to making your own tune. Memorizing the parts and the sounds of each instrument requires a lot of patience and memory. Although, it all seems at ease when Mancuso plays in One Man Band.
The passion used when playing an instrument must exist. Why play something that you cannot use to transmits words or emotion with, right? As you continue to play an instrument you begin to grow a relationship with it. You get to the know most of the instrument and grow love towards it. It comes to a strong relationship at the end because of so much dedication towards wanting to learn how to play, and with the connection you learn to transmit emotions and words through the music I could not have said it better than Paul McCartney, “And, in the end The Love you take is equal to the one you make.”
At the end it all started with wanting to learn how to play one instrument and it progressed to something bigger. Rudy Mancuso shows us in this music video and in almost all of the music videos he has, about enjoying the music. He shows his enthusiasm when playing the instruments, and he shows all this in One Man Band. This video shows its purpose because it demonstrates the control Rudy has when making his own rhythms. Watching this video has made me want to learn how to play like Mancuso, because the satisfaction of achieving something feels good. By the end not only is there satisfaction from what one creates, but you could also find something to drown into, something that puts you at ease with the rest of society.
