The Half-Hearted Musical Prodigy
10:54 AMI love music. It has always been a part of my life. I love the way music can make you feel; altering your mood completely.
Music has been a part of my life even before I was even born. My mother was a middle school and high school band director, so I heard marching band music daily from in the womb. When I parents went to a concert while I my mom was pregnant, I moved around so much in her belly that she eventually had to call it a night. Music was pretty much instilled in me from the beginning.
I remember my dad getting his records out, playing along with them on his guitar. He would just sit there and play along with the songs and sing.
{Playing guitars with my dad.} |
{Being the "Little Drummer Girl" in 1991.} |
One Saturday morning as my mom and I sat in the car outside one of the infamous piano "festivals" I was forced to play at each year, I burst into tears and told her I didn't want to do it anymore. For the first time in my life, she said I didn't have to and we left. We spent the rest of the day at the mall. I quit piano lessons and never looked back.
{Piano recital 1993.} |
{Here I am in 8th grade playing in the pep band. You can tell how serious I am about pep band.} |
When it came time to apply for scholarships to college, a band one was out of the question in my opinion. I think a lot of this hostility was just my own young ignorance. Looking back, I'm not sure if I could have handled being in a college band with students who loved it and actually wanted to be there. It just wasn't something I could focus on, much to my mother's dismay.
It had been six years since I had been in a music class, when all of sudden I missed learning about music. I started reading books on music and classic rock n' roll. I ordered some piano sheet music online and before long, I was playing Sara Bareilles's "Love Song" on my keyboard. I was surprised at how long it took me to read the music. It had been way to long.
Musical ability is a talent that if not applied often, can go away. Trust me. I'm still trying to get back into the "musical" habit. I feel bad that my mother spent so much time trying to make me a musical person and I just let it all go. I'm still a work in progress.
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