Personal Entry 4 - A History of Music

Music has always been an important part of my life. My first encounter with music that I remember was all the way back when I was a child; probably around the age of 4. My grandfather is big into barbershop chorus and would always sing around me, as well as take me to his practices and get our family tickets to each show they played in. I remember one night specifically where I was staying over my grandparents house (this was still around the time my grandfather was in a quartet and they were practicing late at night at my grandparent's house). I spent a majority of my time there listening to my grandpa and his quartet singing songs; ones of which I had no clue what the words were.

While at my grandparents I would always have an obsession with my grandpa's piano, and at my great grandparents, their organ. I remember making up my own songs and playing a progression of easy chords. I didn't know what they were just that I was able to play them and they sounded nice. When I reached elementary school, the fifth graders had a choice of either wind or string instruments. I was already playing guitar by this time so I decided to play the bass. I enjoyed it for the most part, except for the fact that it was extremely heavy and you couldn't really hear the bassists. By the time I reached middle school, I decided in seventh grade that I was going to switch to the viola. I liked it a lot more, because it was louder, more pronounced and much lighter. The only problem I had was I played right in the center and was never able to be seen by my parents when they were in the audience. So I decided I wanted the best of both worlds. The cello. A nice smooth, deep sounding instrument, played right in front on the left side of the stage. Not too big, not too small. The only problem - my orchestra teacher was fed up with my constantly wanting to change, so I ended up quitting orchestra. I was still playing guitar throughout this entire period of time and I became fairly good. I was playing songs from Metallica and Led Zeppelin. However priorities are always changed so my interests quickly shifted when I got more and more into gaming. And unfortunately I stopped playing guitar by the time I was in High School. Now I was following in my grandfather's footsteps and was singing in chorus as a bass. I enjoyed it, other than the fact that all the songs were mostly religious and weren't really fun to

sing. I inevitably quit chorus and from that point on, I was done with music services offered by the school system and decided to pursue my own musical desire by myself. I went to my other roots from when I was a kid and continued playing piano, which to this day, is probably my favorite instrument to play. I still to this day don't know how to read music, but I have to ability to play by ear, really well actually. My family says it's impressive, to me it's just natural. I suppose my constant exposure to music throughout my entire life has helped me understand notes internally. I wish to one day get

piano lessons and learn how to read music, and I strongly believe I can play piano really well. Music will always make it's way into my life one way or another. Not so much as a career, but as one important hobby for sure.