Music Chose Me
For me, a world without music is unimaginable. Music has always been with me. It is integrated into every part of my day. That’s not to say that I always have music playing, or that I’m always playing music, but there is always a heartbeat, a rhythm or a tone or timbre that is musical to my ears. So choosing a career was not such a difficult decision – music chose me.
There is a fine balance between having a career that is your passion and still being able to enjoy your passion outside of work. Likewise, there’s an interesting and sometimes challenging balance between working with professional musicians, and extremely talented and passionate amateur musicians, for whom music is a really important part of their life, and who do it because they love it.
Len and I come from very different musical backgrounds.
I was given every musical opportunity a small town could offer, with plenty of formal and informal music lessons and music-making situations.
When I decided I wanted to play the harp, my mum took me to Auckland for lessons. Later I obtained a degree in music at Auckland University.
Len’s musical education was gained from whatever he could glean from guitar playing friends and, later in life, taking the opportunity to play in local bands. As often happens, life got in the way, and Len will tell you that he didn’t start playing seriously until he was over fifty years old. Isn’t that the beauty of music, and of learning an instrument? It stays with you all your life if the passion is there.
It’s interesting to notice the changes in the music scene – from lessons to gigs – over the last few years. There are a number of things that contribute to this. The internet has caused a paradigm shift in the way music is connected between players and listeners. This is a place where you can watch streamed concerts, old concerts, concerts on the other side of the world. It has unlocked hidden treasures. Recordings and performances that many of us, growing up in the ‘pre-internet’ era, thought were lost forever. Pure gold for fans of music the world over.
The internet has enabled students to access resources that were not available pre-1995. The flip side? You don’t get the same feeling as the buzz from being in the audience of that concert – live! You can attend an online lesson in just about anything, but it’s not the same as having the teacher in the room, getting real time feedback, and correcting posture or hand position in a hands-on way, and allowing the student to ‘try things out’ not hindered by the distance created by a screen. The internet, and all it offers, is a compromise, and sometimes a pretty good substitute in certain situations, but LIVE is best without a doubt.
And the other changes in the world – the pandemic … the economy … the convenience of taking the easy option … are also major reasons for why we see the live music scene struggling to keep up.
It’s interesting too, that in any area of the arts, there are already so many wonderful creations – be it artworks, songs or dances which have already been created to high levels of artistry, and yet, we are still able to keep creating new unique works.
With our constantly modernising world around us, you could be led to presume that new works would also be modern, but the variety and breadth of every aspect of the arts allows for anyone’s interpretation, in any style, to be accepted.
There are still 15th century Italian dance forms or traditional Irish slip jigs being written, some in a very precise and deliberate old form, and others with a fantastic modern twist. The arts are all inclusive.
The inclusion of the arts in our school education is vitally important – the discipline that comes from creating, practising, observing, perfecting, imitating, adapting, completing and all the skills we require to be practitioners of the arts has a huge (and well researched) application to how we learn from a young age. A well-rounded person does not come from languages, sciences and sports alone – knowledge of, and participation in, the arts has a significant impact on these subjects too. You don’t have to create art to enjoy and appreciate it, and our world would be a sad and dangerous place without it.
As well as composing and performing, both Len and I teach private music lessons. We get to engage with the musical journey of a range of musicians.
We’re both kept on our toes, keeping up with the current music trends – trying to balance the negative impacts of AI in the arts, the dominance of the mega streaming services and the online platforms, as well as the degradation of the income streams that are available to writers, composers and performers.
Around two years ago we formed SaltWood, a duo which blends guitar, bass, harp and voices, creating songs with satisfying harmonies, and folksy/jazzy/bluesy original tunes – combining folk, acoustic and contemporary singer-songwriter influences and creating performances that are warm, humorous and engaging. You can see SaltWood at the Kūaotunu Community Hall on 22nd August 2026 – supporting the Kūaotunu Art Trail, a passion project led by Isabel Gilbert-Palmer. Tickets can be purchased from Kūaotunu Store, or by contacting us on saltwoodmusic@gmail.com to reserve tickets.
Access Anna Dunwoodie’s website and Harps Aotearoa Foundation.
Words by Anna Dunwoodie
