Poster's Perspective: Music According to Adam Sullivan

Hello everyone and welcome to the conclusion of this week of celebration! Today marks the 2 year anniversary of ASMTB, and for a lot of people that seems like something that doesn't really need to have a week's worth of spam invested into such a small piece of trivia. To me this means a lot in several different ways from statistically, personally and of course musically. So without further ado, let us start looking into my perspectives on music and then wrap this two part post up with why this celebration even happened.

First off, music means a lot to me. As you have seen over the past music has meant various this to others such as Family, Community, Life, Exploration, Expression and Growth among many other things to the five people who graciously wrote for this series (especially Anu whom I literally asked her the day of to write hers for me). These are very bold and very positive things that were written and I'm extremely grateful to y'all  for writing for me (is my "Southerness" showing through yet?). The reason I decided to start this little mini series was not simply because I was wanting others to "cover me" while I acquired this horrendous cold or "cover me" while I wrote 3 papers for school, one being a mock dissertation for my music history class, (all of which have happened this week, and why this was a day late). The true reason behind this series was to show one thing: Defining what music means to us is too bold of a thing to simply describe with a couple of answers. There is no right answer to what it means to us, as long as it means something, and to musicians that really is something.

In order to begin with what it means to me, we should begin with a little bit of my history. I was born into a musical family. I am among the third generation of musicians in my family line on both my mom and dad's family, though we think it may go back farther. Both of my mom's parents were choir singers, my grandfather being a choir director for several churches in my home town for years. My dad's mother was a pianist for many years at a church in her home town before she met my other grandfather (dad's dad). Even after they married and moved to where they would eventually move to and have my dad and his siblings, she continued played piano. These events led to how my parents became musicians. My dad is a guitarist formed from the era of rock n roll, and my mom a classical pianist. They, too, would become "church musicians", playing in churches and smaller venues to never take it as a professional career. My dad would eventually stop playing in order to pursue a career in engineering, though he does play the guitars we have laying around from time to time. Mom would try to become a music major but then not finish the degree (something about understanding Neapolitan chords) and would become an accountant. 

Another little tid bit of information that may be helpful is to know that I wound up spending a lot of time with all 6 of them when I was younger instead of simply with my mom and dad. This would have me set up to have a large dose of music from my family over anything else, though baseball was a close second. Even now, I spend a lot of time with my grandparents that are still with me.

The point I'm getting at with these stories is because mine covers all of the examples from before. More literally, music represents family and community. Music has always been one of the factors that kept my family connected throughout the generations of variety. Music has always been a playground of exploration which I feel like I have played around with a lot, though there is always so much more to do. It means growth because music has always given me a ground that has allowed me to root onto. Music means expression because this was always the first thing I went to to express anger or sadness. Music means community because the site you are reading this on was built from vocalizing my thoughts on music. It also means community because that was where I found my few friends that I have. Finally music means life because I honestly wouldn't have done anything else.

There are, two things that music means most to me but you will need to subscribe in order to find out what they were. I am seriously sorry that this article was extended so far behind, but between some family issues and being completely bed ridden by bronchitis, I simply could not produce a post that was remotely comprehensive.  

Poster's Perspective: Music According to Faith

And now, we take a break from our regular programming to bring you a celebration of music...

Yeah, enough with the corniness. But, as Sulli said, the anniversary of the blog is coming up and we wanted to take some time to share what music means to us, and how it's wormed its way into every corner of our lives (whether we planned on that or not!). If you have any stories of what music does for you, feel free to share in the comments or email them--who knows, we may even share them as a post!

Music is a very large part of my life. I could write a dozen books on all the ways music has changed my life and even saved my life, but if I had to boil it down to one word... what does music say to me?

It says family.

My first introduction to music would have been when my mom was pregnant with me, and she would lay on the couch while my dad sat on the floor playing guitar and singing with his back up against her belly. He did this for all of us 7 kids, so we came out pretty much ready to go music-wise.

Of course, like all good kiddies, we took piano lessons (with various amounts of enthusiasm) and since our piano teacher was also a choir director, occasionally we would work up something to sing for church. As a family. When my sister was 5, and I was 12 or so, she became obsessed with the violin. She would put whatever was in her hands at the moment--a building block, a dinner plate, a book--under her chin, and sing, "Under my chin, like a violin!" And because we did everything as a family, we all took up strings. 

Because we were homeschooled, we didn't have a ton of extracurricular activities. We weren't running around to drama club, soccer, softball, chess club--something different for each kid. We made music together, and that was all we needed. Over the years we sang together, played the county fair circuit for a couple of summers as a Celtic group, organized and hosted a youth orchestra, and formed a professional string quartet for weddings and other sundry formal gigs. 

For some people, music means playing the clubs, beer and friends. For others, it means concerto competitions and seat challenges. For me, it means getting done with playing for a black tie banquet and going to Meijer in our tuxes at midnight and riding the penny horse with my brothers. For me, it means getting all giddy when we hear our favorite violin concerto on the radio while riding in the car with my sisters.

And because to me, music means family, if I make enough music with you, you're going to have a special place in my heart. In these last couple years of making music with new friends here in Charlotte, my family has grown more than I would have ever thought possible. I'm getting sappy and I know it, but hey... I think that's the point here. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.