Why I Love Music

I have fond memories of running around and dancing to the music of the Beach Boys (which my parents love), and some random record of Polka hits.  I would have been between 3 - 8 years old, and yes, it was really a vinyl record player.  As I got older, I looked up to my older brother a lot (four years my senior) and adopted the music he listened to.  I was twelve or thirteen when I joined my first CD membership to get 11 CDs for the price of one.  I was even smart enough to start dabbling in classical music, especially Mozart.  My older brother left for college when I was fourteen and it was at that point that I began branching out into music and bands that he had never really listened to.  I discovered U2, The Beatles, Jars of Clay, Mozart's Requiem, Dvorak's New World Symphony, and others.  I began to write my own songs on piano, began to teach myself guitar, and I had quit piano lessons (a good thing for me at the time).  No longer was music being forced on me in any capacity.  Everything I did - with regards to music - was because I was passionately interested in it, and was quickly developing my own unique tastes.  When asked what my favorite kinds of music were, I would usually respond with "almost anything EXCEPT rap, country, and heavy metal."  By the age of sixteen I was getting good enough on guitar to write some simple songs with that instrument.  I kept playing piano as well, but only what I wanted to play and learn.  At one point I found Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# minor and learned to play most of quite proficiently.  I also learned (by ear and slightly wrong - I later found out) to play John Lennon's Imagine.  I joined a community choir that was coupled with the local University (Indiana State University) and the piece we worked on and later performed was Handel's Messiah.  I sang with that choir for two more semesters and was lucky to be able to perform Mendelssohn's Elijah, and J.S. Bach's Magnificat.  Why am I explaining my journey through music?  I think it's the only way I can show how important it has become to me, and why I love it so much.  As in any normal person, I would sometimes get sad or angry or happy about things going on  in my life.  I noticed that at the most extreme emotional points in my life, I could most easily write my own music.  I began to use music as the outlet for some of my lowest and highest feelings, and ended up with quite a collection of songs by the time I finished high school.  Music was also important in my church experience.  I was asked to play the organ on Sundays when I was still sixteen.  At first I never even tried to use the bass pedals, but eventually was able to at least fake it on some songs.  Summing all of this up, by the time I went to college I was actively playing piano, guitar, and singing (and sometimes playing organ).  I didn't know what I would end up doing, but I knew I wanted to study music.  I began at Henry Ford Community College (HFCC), and took a music theory class there.  It was like a bunch of light bulbs going off in my head.  Not only was I getting it, I was loving it.  I immediately began using my theory to help write more songs.  I eventually knew what key all of my older songs were in, what the chords were, how to notate them correctly; things which I had never even known much about before.  I also took Jazz Piano lessons and my chord vocabulary went through the roof (I can't believe I just used that expression...oh well, free writing).  By the time I was done at HFCC I was now a great chord reader and player on piano, okay on guitar, and a much better singer.  I also knew a little about the field of Music Therapy and I made the decision to go to Eastern Michigan University and study it.  All of this I did, not because my parents pushed me (in fact, I probably got the opposite from them), not because I felt like it was the only thing I could be good at, not because I wanted to make a lot of money (yeah, that was a joke), but because I can't have a full and rich life without it.  I do feel at times that I have been blessed with a gift (at least of songwriting) - one that I should use to enrich myself and others.  I do feel at times like I can't possibly see myself doing anything else.  Music is the best way I have found to express my deepest and strongest emotions.  Without music I might have never opened myself up fully to my wife, and other loved ones.  The doors of opportunity have always pointed me down the road to music, so I am actively pursuing that road.  The road for a part-time student is long, but I am where I belong.  I love it, and will continue to love it no matter what might be around the next bend.