My Connection With Music- Ryan McEllen

    After seeing this month's blog post topic, it didn't take me long to figure out what I was going to write about. There are many significant things in my life that have shaped me into the person I am today and that I truly care about. Family, friends, sports, exercising, pets, and nature are all aspects of my life that come to mind. But this month I choose to write about something that has influenced my life since I was born. Music is a part of me and it is something that is important to me for a vast amount of reasons.

    I have always felt such a connection to music ever since I was young. The millions of different songs, from different artists, that all have different meanings always kept me interested in listening to the radio. There is never a time that I have felt bored with music or couldn't find a new favorite song. It amazes me how after what seems like an endless amount of songs that have been written, each one is unique and musicians are still finding a way to create new rhythms and lyrics. 

    The amount of memories I hold that have music involved is incredible. I will never forget my family and I turning up the radio on long car rides, guessing the artist and name of each song as it played, and singing all of the lyrics loudly together by memory. That is another thing that fascinates me about music, is that after you listen to a song a couple of times, you automatically start knowing the words by heart without having the intention to learn them. Music has also been involved on all vacations I have been on, it is played in my house when my family cooks meals or cleans up, and while playing games or hanging out, music always provides nice background noise. It is just a prominent part of my life that is entangled throughout most memories I have.

    Aside from loving to listen to music, a huge part of me is my ability to play instruments and make music. One of my favorite activities to do in life is to just play music myself and learn new techniques to make my skills better. Looking back, I would probably say that fourth grade was the pivotal moment in my life when I started to play music. This was the year I started band as a kid and learned how to play percussion. I loved all of the different instruments from around the world that were involved in percussion, as well as all of the sounds each instrument could create. Even now, I continue to play percussion in band and challenge myself everyday with new songs and harder music. Throughout my road of being a part of band, playing music has also moved on to my life outside of school. At home, I learned how to play the drum set when I received my first kit a couple of years ago. I have also developed the skills to play other percussion instruments such as the cajón, djembe, and pan drum. And most recently, I have gotten a guitar and am learning how to play more and more songs with it. 

    Playing music has also opened my life up to opportunities. Along with loving to play instruments and create songs myself, my friends also share this same love for music. This caused us to create a band, where I play drum set and my friends play the guitar, bass, piano, and sing. Our band is a really fun part of my life and it is a way to share my music with others. We have played a few gigs as a band already and are planning on playing more gigs this summer. Aside from my band with my friends, music has also pushed me to play music with my church. I currently play cajón in my youth group worship team, and I also play the drum set for my church's main worship team every few weeks. Playing music by myself is one thing, and I love to improve my skills this way, but playing songs with others is a time when I am happiest in life. 

    Music is something that can help me when I am feeling down, calm me when I am anxious, make me even happier when I am feeling good, and really just makes life better. The affect different songs have on a person's emotions is incredible and powerful. With music, artists can tell a story without words, emotion can be revealed through notes, and the world can be changed through one song. Not only is music important to me, it is important to the whole world, whether people realize it or not. Music has been a way for different cultures to express themselves, and it has led many movements that shape our society today. I am very thankful to have a strong connection with music and to realize that it is a significant part of humanity. I try to listen to music as much as I can, to learn from different genres, and to love the meaning behind each song, as well as how they sound. I honestly can't remember a day where I haven't heard some type of music. I am even listening to one of my playlists right now as I write this blog post. And that's why it is one of the most important and prominent things in my life and to me.