Digging Up Your Roots: What Made You Want To Play?

This week I asked folks the question “what was your first musical memory. The one that made you say “I Need to pick up a guitar, or banjo, or bang on a piano”? These are what the fine folks who answered the call…as always, interesting to see what makes people tick and want to start on the path of music.

Michael Spaly : There are two memories that come to mind as the base influences in getting me started playing and shaping the way I listen to music. When I started kindergarten, I became friends with Bruce Maynard. His mom taught piano and he played the violin. I went home, told my mom I wanted to play violin. She immediately set me up with lessons and kept me at it throughout the years. The second memory was riding in the car with my dad. He had a couple of his favorite 8-tracks – Fist Full of Dollars and Zorba the Greek, that also had a few choice tracks added to the end; I don’t remember any names, just that they had great melodies. Each of us kids had our ‘favorite’ song and he’d cue it up. I’m pretty sure this heavily influenced my strive to find alternative music sources.

 

Joshua Black Wilkins: My grandfather would constantly sing “you ain’t nothing but a hound dog” at

Courtney Gallagher: My first musical memory: When I was little I saw Itzhak Perlman playing violin with a little girl on Sesame Street. That made me want to play the violin, so I took Suzuki lessons and that was my gateway into playing instruments and reading music. 

Brian McKenzie: I grew up listening to rock and metal. When I was about 11 years old, Cinderella
and Iron Maiden were my favorite bands. I made a “guitar” out of a badminton racket and a whammy bar out a straw and a lego. I was rocking out to “Somebody Save Me”, standing on my bed, playing my racket and my parents walked in. My mom said to my dad “I think we should buy him a guitar”. I was a lot worse at badminton.

Patrick DeCoste: I heard Ozzy’s “Crazy Train”. What’s funny is I sound nothing like Randy Rhoads but it just shows how no matter what the style/ genre or message, music transcends and can open doors you never imagined existed.

 

Jeff Butcher: Well. I was about 8 or 9… My dad sat me down and put on a record with 4 people making a ton of silly faces on the cover. He skipped to track 5, and the nylon string riff of “And I love her” started and my eyes widened. Pretty much mystified from that point on. I wanted to write a song like that. The rest of “A hard Days Night” was equally as amazing, but I’ll never forget the first Beatles experience.