Music & Family

    When I hear the word Family I immediately think of the people related to me by blood. Now, my family is not super musically inclined- like my dad likes to play music while he cooks and my mom listens to music when it comes on the car radio. And I like to think that my taste and exposure to music has drastically increased during my freshman year of high school because I had downloaded Spotify and got comfortable listening to a bunch of new music, now I listen to pretty much anything and everything that I think sounds good. But anyway- getting back on track. Like I said, my family aren't the biggest music people, my sister plays the flute and I play violin but that's about it. For this assignment I chose to interview my grandmother because she sings in the choir at her church, which I can relate to because I play violin for the orchestra at my church, First Baptist of Spartanburg.

    During this conversation with my grandmother I asked her 8 questions that I thought I would get the most information from. My grandmother likes to talk to people but she doesn't talk about her past very often. I learned some things that I hadn't known before or had the opportunity to learn. Like I mentioned earlier, my grandmother sings in the choir at her church, Holston Creek Baptist Church. She has sang with this specific choir for around 45 years! And before that while she was growing up, she sang with Inman Presbyterian church for about 6 years.

    The first question I asked my grandmother was "How important was music growing up?" to which she responded with "I enjoyed playing the piano growing up. Fun to learn new songs." I love my grandmother but she missed the entire point of that question but because I had other questions to ask I decided not to worry about it too much. The second question I asked her was "How did you listen to music as a kid- technology wise?" My grandmother responded "I didn't have all the technology that you have today. I listened over the radio, cassettes, and 8-track cassettes." Which reminded me about the time last summer when my mother, sister, my two cousins, and my grandmother were cleaning out an old closet and found an old cassette tape. I was really fascinated by it-- I wanted to take it home and listen to it with my dad's cassette player but I wasn't allowed to take it home since it technically belonged to my aunt. The third question I asked my grandmother was "How has your music taste changed over the course of your life?" My grandmother responded saying she used to listen to country music growing up and now listens to mostly Christian music. 

    For my fourth question I asked "Is there an instrument you would like to learn how to play, besides piano." Because I knew she had played piano growing up I was interested in which instrument she would want to learn. My grandmother answered with "Possibly clarinet or xylophone. When we had an orchestra at church, I played the xylophone. I had never played one before so I had to put tape on the keys so I would know where middle C was." Which, coming from a violinist, is so relatable. My fifth question was "What is your least favorite type of music?" She answered with one word. "Jazz." And then she followed up with; "To me, Jazz has no meaning and is just notes being played." 

    The sixth question I asked her was "What is your favorite song?" And I told her she could list a couple because I know it can be a tricky question! These were her answers: 

The first song she listed as her favorite was "What an Awesome God" By Phil Wickham.

The second song she listed was "Get Behind Me" By Emerson Day. 

   

    My last two questions I asked my grandmother were fairly simple. The seventh question I asked was something I randomly thought of in the middle of the conversation. "Do you remember which song you played for the bride and groom dance at your wedding?" To which my grandmother told me, "PopPop (my grandfather) and I got married at my house so we didn't have any music. Just a matron of honor and best man. And a few family members. After the ceremony we just went into the den and cut the cake." It never occurred to me until I asked that question that I'd never heard my grandparents talk about their wedding day. I genuinely want to ask more questions now. But that's a conversation for another day. For my eighth and final question I asked her "Who were some of your favorite musicians growing up?" My grandmother listed out The Oak Ridge Boys, Kenny Rogers, Bill Gaither, and Tennessee Ernie Ford. I have never heard of any of those names before. I'll probably look them up at a later date when I have more time haha. 

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you enjoyed!