PART OF ME
My mom is a beautiful soprano. My dad was a rich baritone/bass. I fit in somewhere in the middle.
I have never known life without music. I honestly don't know where I would be without music. Before I knew God, I knew music. Now I know God, and the music is so much better.
My voice was so high when I was younger that my cousins would pick at me and call me Michael Jackson. If I had known then what I know now, I would have been flattered.
I don't know when I started singing harmony or hearing parts, but it was the most natural thing to me. Singing harmonies to all of the songs on the radio. I went to sleep listening to music...well, I went to bed listening to music. I couldn't sleep because I was always trying to pick out the harmony parts. It never dawned on me that not everyone did that. Thankfully, I had a music mentor that took the time to develop me. He turned the youth choir and gospel choir at my church over to me when I was 15. He had me singing in weddings and choir concerts, and I was loving it and scared out of my mind all at the same time.
Many years later, I'm still that 5-year-old, that 12-year-old, that teenager. I still love music like it was my half-brother. I still hit high notes sometimes...just not as high. I still feel like taking the world by storm...just not by Star Search. I still have a music mentor and a few cherished influences. I like people a little bit more now, but I still need to get away after a while. One of the prerequisites for choosing my wife was that she had to be able to sing. I figured if I had to spend my time away from the music, it at least needed to be with someone who could appreciate it in that way (crazy, right? Well, I'm still happily married so it worked!)
And music is still my best friend.