Today’s guest post comes from David Watterson, a consultant for Music National Service
The first song I ever learned on piano is Bill Withers’ classic soul hit, “.” I was eight years old and had never heard the original recording, but there was something about the chords and the lyrics printed on the sheet music that felt special to me. I played it over and over to memorize it. My Dad often tells stories about being woken up at 7:30 on Saturday mornings to the sound of me playing Lean On Me on our living room piano.
Some fifteen years later, Lean On Me is still one of my favorites, a song I often find myself returning to whenever I sit down at the piano. But this past Monday, the song took on a special new meaning for me. As part of the Martin Luther King National Day of Service, I joined Music National Service and Oakland School for the Arts in teaching Lean On Me to nearly 150 participants of all backgrounds – musicians and non-musicians, elementary through high school aged youth, and corporate volunteers from throughout the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area.
After learning the song in separate instrumental workshops throughout the day, all 150+ participants came together for one final performance. With over 20 people each on guitar, keyboard, and percussion, a horn section, and another 75 or so singing along, the sound was understandably huge. As a participant, the performance and the visual of seeing so many people singing and playing their hearts out was deeply inspiring and uplifting.
Lean On Me was a natural choice to feature. Besides the fact that it is fairly easy to teach and learn, it has an infectious groove and melody, and lyrics that capture the core of Dr. King’s life and message. Withers’ words , “Lean on me / When you’re not strong / And I’ll be your friend / I’ll help you carry on / For it won’t be long / Til I’m going to need / Somebody to lean on,” so simply yet profoundly imagines Dr. King’s vision of the beloved community, in which fellow human beings love and care for each other as brothers and sisters.
As inspiring as the final performance was, the true magic and value in the event was not the product, but the process. The small but important interactions that occurred as we worked together to teach and learn this piece of art and music was the true reward. The willingness to embrace the struggle of learning something new, whether on piano or guitar, and allowing yourself to “lean on” somebody else’s leadership in learning it, is a uniquely valuable experience. It’s this engagement in creativity and community that music and art embodies that we should be looking at more seriously as a legitimate and powerful resource to soothe the hate and social fracturing that feels too common all around us. When we allow ourselves to come together through the universal experience of creativity and music, we are reminded that the things we have in common far exceed the barriers that superficially divide us.
For me, it was the process of teaching the five piano chords of Lean On Me to a young girl on Monday, that helped me remember what it was like for me at the same age when my own imagination was brought alive by the power of music.
Watterson is a proud alumnus of Berklee College of Music and City Year Chicago, where he served as an AmeriCorps member for two years. He currently works with Music National Service as part of his studies at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
Music National Service is a nonprofit organization that supports music as a strategy for public good. For updates, follow them on and . A complete video of the event and final performance will be available online soon.
