Music was a big part of my life growing up. My mother played the piano and both my parents sang. The music I grew up hearing around our house was honky-tonk, bluegrass and gospel/Christian music. To this day I enjoy that music, but I am diverse in my music tastes and like variety in that with it all depending on my mood and what I want to listen to at that time. I enjoy Soft rock, some jazz (Kenny G), Celtic, Native American, some classical, instrumental, contemporary Christian (love to listen to K-Love radio), country music (not so much the modern), some pop music, some Hebrew, some reggae, and those mentioned above.
My mother in her younger days would play the piano with her sister for dances in the area. They only knew how to chord and did not have much in the way of formal training, but they were good and were asked many times to play. When we were in high school we started to go to a little country church not far from where we lived and she would play piano there and often times pick up the tempo of some of the hymns. She worried that people at church would not like the way she played them, but they actually loved her playing and asked her often to play for church services and others needing accompaniment while singing.
We were all encouraged to sing. My father used to sing in the choir in school and carried that on and sings for funerals and church services. My mother never sang solos, but would sing the harmony with me or my father. I have sang in church in various capacities and quite often until I came down with pneumonia one year and since then my voice has not been the same and have done very little singing since then – I miss it a lot!
I am a huge fan of music and believe that it can speak when there are no words to express what you are feeling at the time. Somewhere I read a quote that stated: “Music is the language of the soul” and I truly believe that.
Music has many benefits for us humans – it can reduce stress, improve our outlook, it can encourage and motivate, ease tension and frustration, studies have found it can boost your immune system, lower your blood pressure, and there is a growing field now in music therapy, which uses music to heal.
What do you enjoy listening to? What music did you grow up hearing? I hope you will share!!
Lorlyn's Ramblings 