response 1 of 50:

Mar 19 23:40 UTC 1997

Now for me, I guess I have always had a love of singing.  My folks got me into
the practice of singing along with the radio when I was little.  My father
sang us kids guitar lullabies, and I just recently started learning the
guitar.  I had one of those great Fisher-Price xylophones when I was a tot
too.  My mother played the piano, and so I started lessons when I was 8.  I
was lucky enough to get in band when I was in the fourth grade, and I
continued until about the middle of my freshman year in college.  I have been
playing for church since I was 12 (I'm now 22), and I also learned to play
organ along the way.  I'm self-taught in guitar and valved brass instruments,
but as I said, I was classically trained in piano.

I got interested in audio when a friend of mine started getting into car
stereo systems.  He's one of the best consultants I have-- he is a major
competitor in my area, ranked at about #2.

I'm thinking about becoming an elementary music teacher, so I'm interested
about what attract people (esp. kids of course) to music, and more
importantly, what encourages them to create their own.  Why can some kids sing
and others can't?  The answer seems to be that really anyone can learn to
sing.

It should be obvious now that music is a huge part of my life.  It's in the
blood.

response 3 of 50:

Mar 20 03:17 UTC 1997

I have always liked music, but hadn't really gotten into it until a few
years ago. Though I can recall a 45 rpm recording of "The Battle of New
Orleans" that I was *fascinated* with when I was two or three.  And I
*loved* singing folk songs in choir in school, particularly any that 
were identifiably old/British. I was lucky enough that we still did
Christmas songs in school, so I learned a lot of Olde English carols.
As I got older, I listened to radio, but wasn't terribly interested
in popular music as she was in the late sixties, early seventies. (And
gag me with a spoon if I ever hear disco again! Blah.) I collected
a few 45 rpm records and an album or two, even an eight-track or five,
but I wasn't really *into* anything.
Lo and behold, I heard folk music about two years into college. Taht
really got me hooked, and I bought several Steeleye Span recordings,
some Horslips, and a filk recording by Lesley Fish, and those seemed
to keep my musical tastes going for quite a while. 

Again, I really didn't get into it as a living thing, I had my artifacts,
and I liked them. 

Then, seventeen years ago, God help me, I got my current job. Copy
editing. The only way to concentrate -- at least according to my
office-mates -- was by getting a walkman and listening to music. All
of a sudden, I was listening to music eight hours a day. One or two
records weren't enough anymore. I started buying it. I started *listening*
closely. I started going to Schoolkids. And thence leads the way to
perdition. I now have a rather largish collection of tapes and CDs,
though not in the thousands like some people I know -- I do have several
hundred. I listen to them -- still -- about eight hours a day, and 
then there's the radio at night, and on the weekends. So....that's my
tale.

response 5 of 50:

Mar 20 15:12 UTC 1997

I got a clock radio for Christmas when i was about 9 years old, and that
thing was on literally 24 hours a day for the next 8 years or so.

response 7 of 50:

Mar 21 07:56 UTC 1997

Ok, we've heard a lot so far from the commercial music junkies-- any DJs,
car/home audiophiles, music educators out there?

What instrument does your father play, Jen?

response 9 of 50:

Mar 22 05:02 UTC 1997

I was brought up with pop music in the house and did not get interested -
until I heard Beethoven's 6th Symphony (had to leave home to do that). 
I played it so much I can still recognize it from hearing a couple of bars
from it anywhere. From there, I moved back..to Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi... 
That's where I still dwell.

response 11 of 50:

Mar 23 14:00 UTC 1997

My Dad is a music type, having been a bassist, churh organist, etc.  So we
had music around the house a decent amount.  My (older) brother was pretty
heavily into music, so I had opportunities to get at stuff.  We all had piano
lessons, which didn't last, and orchestra which lasted for my brother and me,
but my sister dropped out.

What is interesting is that my brother was in bands all thru high school,
college, and a couple years professionally, while I played a lot but ended
up into computers.  Now we both work in computers, and I'm getting more
involved in making music now than he is.

Unlike some of the others here, I *don't* like having music on all the time.
I tend to listen too critically and get distracted from what I am really
trying to do.  Silence is also music.

response 13 of 50:

Mar 29 05:44 UTC 1997

  I was never into music as a small child, except for what was played on the
car radio, which was country and western. At home, my mother would play her
records mostly classical, and more country mixed in, not to mention the piano
and organ that she played. 
  At 16, I was given my first "boombox" for my 16th birthday. It was an AM-FM
8-track portable (this was 1976, folks), and through that I primarily listened
to CKLW, and WDRQ, both of which were playing Top-40 formats. Through that,
I turned onto Elton John, Chicago, and Bob Seger, mostly.
  I took up the clarinet, and the bass clarinet in high school, which I played
for 3 yrs, but gave up because the dog's suicide notes were starting to sound
really serious ;) I still love to hear trumpet music of any kind, preferably
Al Hirt, Herb Alpert, Maynard Ferguson, and Doc Severenson, whom I consider
to be an absolute master of his instrument.
  Nowadays, my CD collection is an eclectic mix of jazz (Lionel Hampton),
Classical (Bach is my favorite, Chopin, Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov and Strauss's
waltzes), Stevie Ray Vaughan is a recent discovery, and I am really mad that
I missed the time that he was with us, but I have swore that I will buy
everyone of SRV's CD's. I cannot say enough about how much of a master he was,
and what a loss his death really was.
I also have various country artists, like Chet Atkins, Flatt and Scruggs,
Randy Travis and George Strait. 
  I don't believe that there is any music that is bad, but there is some
terrible music out there. I never liked Metal, or Hard Rock simply because
there was hardly any melody, and hardly any lyrics that can be understood,
but an old Aerosmith or Van Halen will bring a sense of deja vu.
  I am going through a revolution of sorts with the radio. I had been stuck
on the oldies and make no mistake about them, there was some great music from
that era like Rosie and the Originals, Duane Eddy, and Buddy Holly whom I
consider the real king of rock and roll. I now listening to Q95.5, and it's
OK, but I still miss the oldies. ;)

response 15 of 50:

May 20 04:41 UTC 1997

This area certainly has impressive bands.  Our orchestra also took first in
a nationwide competition, and our Band's been cutting edge for years.  Seems
like a phenomenon.

response 17 of 50:

Jun 6 05:48 UTC 1997

comes with having a large college alum population to bolster the pocketbooks.

response 19 of 50:

Jun 9 14:42 UTC 1997

Yeah, Ann Arbor has one of the best music programs in the public schools in
I've ever seen. . .I feel pretty lucky to have grown up here, especialy since
my mother;'s continued presence here has nothing to do with the "U". . .

response 21 of 50:

Jul 4 20:37 UTC 1997

Interestingly enough, her name was Leslie, thus causing me to do a nice little
double take when I heard you were at the UofM back then :)

response 23 of 50:

Jul 10 23:57 UTC 1997

Self education is always the best way.