hmm....

Imagine watching a movie had had no music...I have never known life without music. Ever since I remember listening to anything I was hearing music. The biggest influence is classical music. Things like Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Bach, etc were in my ears everyday of my young life. I grew up listening to these types of things...and my mom who sings opera. Although I did sing in the choir as a kid, I was 8 when I started my own journey down music avenue. (ok I was...5-ish when I sang in the choir) I started with piano and trumpet at the same time. From then on, there was not a day in my life that did not have classical music in it: I would either be practicing myself or attending rehearsal or performing...etc, etc. The constant activity in this discipline has developed a well...discipline in me. Music requires such close study and practice and resilience that, after a time, it instills a certain patience and discipline in the musician nothing else I know can put in a person.

Classical music, of course, doesn't just include the music during the Classical music era but all of the other ones too such as Romantic, Baroque, Renaissance, etc. Playing and hearing music from all these different time periods has helped me to understand different elements in music: complex melodies/counter melodies(Baroque), dynamic and flow(Romantic), amongst other things. Since most music I'm involved in does not have lyrics or text, I find it to be much easier to actually be listening to the sounds and nothing else because...there isn't much else..

Music also helped me to understand different minds: the thoughs of a suffering person who has overcome his adversity, the great happiness of a newlywed. Music, afterall, is like a brainchild of it's composer, in a form able to be understood by everyone who chooses to understand. Music, then, is the universal language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8l37utZxMQ