This is my essay for my music history class. Instructions:
Personal background, academic and avocational interests, major area of study.
What is music? What music do you prefer to listen to? What role do you want music to play in your life? Do you play music?
Any other pertinent info regarding your enjoyment or discontent of music.
This was big for me because I had not been able to write anything meaningful in about two months. This assignment opened the flood gates of my memory, and I have not stopped writing effectively for two straight days. Thank God!
My name is Adam Ganucheau. I was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and my hometown is Hazlehurst, Mississippi. I have a wide variety of interests ranging from music to outdoor activities to spending time with family and friends. I have selected Journalism as a major. I have always loved writing, and I know of no better way to do what I love than a career in this field. I hope to one day become an editor or writer for a big-time newspaper or magazine. I also hope to one day publish a novel. Writing is a fairly new life ambition for me, so I am still attempting to choose the path I want to take that brings me the most happiness.
To many, music is a culmination of sounds and rhythms that forms a song. To me, music is more than that—music is a way of life. A mere stroll through campus proves that music makes the world go ‘round. The footsteps of the passerby, the dissonance of distant sirens, the chirping of birds, the swirling of the wind, the rustling of leaves, the rattling of construction crews, the screaming of young children, and the conversations held by different voices all combine to form a song that can only be described as spectacular. If there was no music in this world, humans would have neither creativity nor depth. We would be nothing more than a mass of flesh and bones that serve as robots to society. Without music, there would be no communication. Sounds and syllables that we know as words would remain sounds and syllables that could not possibly be processed by the human brain. Without music, there would be no hope to be released from despair. Without music, there would be no point in breathing another breath; in essence, there would be no point in living. With music comes life, and in life comes music, and I am a firm believer in that statement.
I have been truly blessed with the ability to enjoy and create music since I was a fetus. My parents can attest to that bold statement by telling you that I would kick when I heard a song inside my mother’s womb before I was even born. Since the age of five, I have taken classical piano lessons and proved my abilities by winning numerous awards for festivals across the state of Mississippi. I have worked one on one with the piano great George Winston on a couple different occasions. I joined performance band in fifth grade playing trumpet. Since then I have competed and placed in many competitions and clinics, both individually and with a performance group as a whole. Music has always been one of the most important things in my life, and I do not know what I would do without it. Many people ask me why I choose not to study music in college and pursue a career in music. My answer is simple: I do not want to lose the intimate and personal feelings I have for music. Music is my release—my way of becoming one with the universe and forgetting all things in this mad world. If I get overly stressed with school or just life in general, a thirty-minute piano session is enough to put my mind and soul at ease. I fear that if I become too involved in music, I will lose sight of the benefits it gives me and that I will take it for granted. Some might say that I am keeping what I love on the side, but I do not view it that way—I am keeping it right where it needs to be.
My musical taste has changed tremendously in my lifetime. As a child, I started taking classical piano lessons playing classical music and church hymns. Neither of these genres particularly interested me, but my parents forced me to stick with it. I loved country music. Growing up in small-town Mississippi most likely had a substantial role in deciding to choose that as my musical preference. As I got a little older, I started listening to more pop and country pop. As I got even older, I dropped country altogether and liked mostly pop and r&b. Sometime during my early high school years, I finally developed that appreciation for classical music and church hymns that I had been basically pounded with since first grade. I played classical music in my leisure time and actually led worship at my church playing hymns on piano. I have slightly drifted away from those two, but still enjoy playing them on occasion. Also during my high school years, I developed an intense appreciation for blues music. I studied blues greats and began writing my own blues songs. I have since drifted away from that a bit as well to write more easy listening- type music. My first semester at Ole Miss has broadened my musical horizons as well. I am now open to any and all types of music, but I still believe that I have yet to reach the peak of my musical taste. These days, it does not even have to sound appealing for me to be interested in who wrote it and what their story is.
Today, I continue to play music. I play basically any piano music I can get my hands on and I still attempt to write songs on the piano as well. I am no longer taking lessons, but I occasionally return home to play at church. I have used my trumpet-playing abilities to help pay my way through college. I am a member of the Pride of the South Marching Band here at Ole Miss, and am participating in University band, a concert band, this semester. As is evident, music plays a huge role in my life. I hope that taking this music history class will further broaden my scope of musical taste and allow me to better understand music as not just sounds and rhythms, but as a way of life.
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