What sort of music was played in your house when you were growing up? What effect, (if any) did it have on your musical tastes?
Oh my, where to start. I come from a very musical family. My paternal grandmother was a piano teacher who taught herself how to play from listening intently at her three sons' piano lessons and then helping them while they practiced and working through their assignments on her own. My maternal grandmother was also a self-taught pianist who made sure all four of her children learned at least one instrument (I think my mom plays three, maybe four). My mom studied music education at the
U of U, and my dad and his two brothers played in dance bands around Salt Lake City from the 1950s through the early 1970s. I remember my dad going out on gigs as a very small child.
The music that was played in our house ran the gamete. Classical, jazz, big band (yes, it's different from jazz), old standards, new pop, and some rock. The only music not allow was anything with questionable lyrics or if the beat gave my mom a headache. We'd still sneak of the last kind in occasionally. Hey, we were kids. My brother loved (and probably still does) the Beatles. My dad wowed us all with his lightning quick fingers as he'd riff through jazz numbers. All of my parents' five children play the piano and learned at least one other instrument (most of us play the violin because we had one).
I have a degree in Musical Education from the U. I play the piano, the violin, and the voice (singing). I tried the flute and the viola for half a year in junior high. I have performed with choirs from junior high school through college and at church (I've sung at the LDS Conference Center [including in a choir for a session of
General Conference], and on Temple Square at the Assembly Hall and Tabernacle). I played in the
Granite Youth Symphony from eighth through eleventh grade (when I unfortunately gave up the violin). I've been hired by local community theater companies to be the music director for several shows. That's how I met
Mr. Perfect. I've performed on stage in several musical productions here in Salt Lake. I have been teaching piano for almost 30 years.
I guess you could say that music permeates my life. My college vocal teacher told me that I needed to marry a man who understood music, because if he didn't, he would never understand me. I agree. If
Mr. Perfect didn't know music (he played the french horn and sang in choir in high school), he would never completely understand me. I know a lot of women like to keep an edge on their men, but I would rather have a partner than a slave to my whims.
Music fills our house. We have a beautiful Baldwin studio upright in the living room. When it's played, there is no where in the house you can't hear it. We have a violin and a plethora (I love using that word) of percussion instruments. And
Mr. Perfect loves a good stereo. He's pieced a couple together for us so that we have an amazing (and completely worthless monetarily) surround sound system for the family room T.V.
To close, I'd have to agree with Mr. Shakespeare that music is the food of love, so "play on."
