Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Music

Alright, I probably should have said first that music is a very important part of my life, so I'll get that out of the way.
I always had a pretty strange taste in music while growing up. My dad played the acoustic guitar like no one else I knew and my house was always filled with acoustic instruments and folk music. While my fellow peers were listening to things like Britney Spears and Blink 182 in middle school, I was listening to Cappercaile, Nick Drake, and Leanard Cohen. I remember when people in study hall would ask me with a very confused and somewhat disgusted look "What are you listening too?" when they could hear my headphones. Thankfully, the world has changed and folk music along with it's counterparts have been more accepted and adapted with my generation.
When I was 12 or so, my dad gave me a small $40 starter acoustic guitar. He and I never discussed how I would learn, so I took it in my room and studied the hell out of it until I began to recognize it's sounds and parts. Unfortunately, I had only taught myself a few chords before school became hectic enough to keep me away from learning any more.
Years later, when I was about 15, I was going through the typical young teenage tragedy and needed more than drawing to help vent any and all stress. I'm not sure what lead me to begin to write music, but I just started letting rhymes come out. We had this old (it was my great-grandmother's) piano and, like the guitar, I sat down one day and began to figure it out. Through this kind of process, I've learned how to play not just the acoustic guitar and the piano, but also the electric and bass guitars, the bazooki (I banjo-like instrument), the dulcimer and drum dulcimer, the djembe drums, and the banjo. Though I can hardly read music (like my dad, who is also self-taught), I can pick up most instruments and figure them out in a day or two if I already don't have any idea how they're played. This love of music, instruments, and song helped to install a deep enjoyment of song-writing and performance. I try to make it to most open-mic events and have occasionally been part of benefit concerts for a few different causes.

Well, after that rant, I'll sum up and just say that music is great and I hope those who read this can connect with what I've posted.

For up-to-date Isaac news:
tomorrow is due the first draft of a 2-D project that neither I nor the rest of the class understand. I'm content in BS-ing what I can.

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