The fondest memory I have with music is with my family. (Sappy, and unoriginal, I know.) My sister went to boarding school and is in college, so whenever she comes home, she will teach me the new “hip” song. We have dance parties in her room, and laugh at all the cheezy lyrics, just stupid stuff that couldn’t be more fun. I also love crooning the crazy rap and pop songs in the car with my parents and seeing their laughing, bewildered faces. And of course, Christmas, where I roll my eyes at the countless hours of carols, but can’t help dancing around the house. I love converting my parents into “new” music. Right now, we’re in a huge Gaga phase. Bad Romance is my dad’s ringtone! We’re a big, goofy, family, and we’re probably not the “normal” family, but we love each other more than anything, and nothing, and no one, will change that.

My favorite music memory is when Katy Perry is performing “Firework.” It really touched me. There are a lot of people out there that feel ashamed of who they are, and this song is telling you to just be yourself and to not care what people say.

I listen to music on radio, Youtube,  mp3raid.com, and VH1. Music keeps the spirit happy on the road. It keeps the mind ticking when nothing seems to work. It gives inspiration to do more and achieve your dreams. It brings you closer to yourself. It connects you to artists you have never seen in real life or will never ever see in future.

My first music memory or the one that meant most to me would be when my best friend and I promised each other we would never give up on our music and dreams. We lost touch with each other when we went to high school, but now whenever we see each other we sing and it  brings us back together. We have music’s power to thank for that! Music is all around me, and I think I’d be completely lost without it!

My music memory is going to see Taylor Swift at San Diego Sports Arena on the fearless tour last year. I hadn’t seen her live before, but she just blew me away!! Her music really touches me. I also got to go with my whole family and that made it all the more special. I have always loved going to concerts, but that one was just so special in so many ways.

“Oooooo ooooooo, I heard it through the grapevine.” I always loved to be one of the Pips while my mother sang the lead of Gladys Knight. We would dance and and doo wop just like we were in a Grease movie. My mother and I had some of the best times ever before she entered into the kingdom of heaven eight years ago. I never had my father to play a role in my life so my mother had to take the role of being both. She was kinda strict but I knew she was doing it to make me the successful 26 year old I am today. I would give anything to sing one more song with her and dance like we used to. Love you mother.

My most memorable music memory was when I was in elementary school, and we had a talent show. I have always loved being in front of an audience to put a smile on their faces! My friend and I decided we would sing “One Voice” by Billy Gilman. We chose this song because it was an inspirational song that we could relate to! Of course I was a little nervous, but I knew I would be fine and would just have to throw the nerves aside and perform this song with passion. After we performed, the crowd was amazingly loud for us. Everyone was very happy with our performance. As I was walking around, many people kept coming up to me saying that I did amazing and that I have such a beautiful voice. While I was trying to find my parents, another parent and teacher came up to me and said that we brought tears to their eyes, and our performance moved them and was very touching. That moment I will never forget because right then I was inspired to move forward with singing as my passion. Just that feeling of knowing that you made people happy and touched people by singing for them makes me feel amazing and so very happy inside and out!! With singing as my greatest passion, I have now been working harder then ever to make my dream of getting discovered and signed to become reality! Keep the faith and trust in God!!

I have a lot of music memories, but the one that means the most to me was when I was seven. Almost every kid dreams of being a singer, my sisters and I were no different. We sang together everywhere we went; if we were together you can bet that the three of us were singing. Soon,  my big sister Cheetara and I got involved with a church (thanks to a friend of the family). The first time we went to the church, we discovered that it had a choir. The first thought in my mind was, we have to join. Luckily, I wasn’t the only person thinking that. The friend of the family who brought us to the church had heard us sing before. She asked us if we wanted to be in the choir, and of course we couldn’t say no! The choir gathered together, and my sister and I stood in front of them and sang. It was a wonderful feeling, and we were more than happy to sing. After we sang, everyone applauded and complimented us,  and said they would love to have us as members of the choir. After a few practices, it was time for my sister and my first performance. I was nervous, and I could tell my sister was too. When the music started, all the nerves disappeared and we just let the music take us.  Looking out and seeing the audience, seeing the smiling faces, everyone enjoying themselves, people clapping and singing along,  and standing up and just having the music move them was the most amazing feeling ever. The music that I was singing could make people this happy. My mom says I sang a solo, but to be honest I don’t remember that part at all. The only thing that mattered to me was the music and how it was making other people feel. That was the first time I ever stepped foot on a stage and sang. I will never forget that wonderful feeling. One day I will achieve my dream; I’ll be a signed singer and I’ll get the chance to see that unbelievable sight of the audience truly enjoying the music again.

I was twelve years old. My Grandmother bought me a clarinet for my birthday. She requested me to play a solo at an event that was being held at her church. I really didn’t want to do it, but I was too scared to say no. I was nervous because I wasn’t too confident in my playing abilities. Then my Grandmother told me that I would be playing Amazing Grace for a group of deaf children and that another young girl would be singing while I played. Being the young-minded child that I was, I wondered what sense it made playing music for a group of deaf children. I figured they wouldn’t be able to hear it anyway, right? Upon hearing the news, I was not nervous any more. I figured, if I mess up, it’s not like they would hear it anyway. Despite these thoughts, I practiced my solo, because I knew there would be others who weren’t deaf. The day came and I played my solo while one young lady sang, and another acted out sign language. All of the deaf students wore hearing aids, so they heard my solo and they were so grateful for all of the performances. As I played my solo, watching the intensity of students as they listened was something that I have never experienced. It brought joy to my heart seeing their gleaming faces as they listened to the beautiful notes that surfaced the room. And not only did I give the gift of music, but I learned a valuable lesson and received a gift that could never be bought.

My favorite music memory was when I first went to Warped Tour. I was relatively new to music, and seeing all the bands live really excited me. I remember seeing 3Oh3 live and loving it. This is my first and favorite memory, but recently I went to the Monster Ball and that was an experience of a lifetime as well.

My music memory is during Christmas.  I will always remember waking up on Christmas Eve as a kid and hearing the Christmas music playing from the radio. Then I watched my parents and older siblings decorate the tree as the ham roasted in the oven. It was such a great feeling because it didn’t matter if the family was fighting at that moment or had a grudge from yesterday’s arguing; we always put it aside to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and to come to together as a true family does.

I remember when I was about thirteen, just about every week I went to go get a new CD of my favorite artist that I liked, and I would spend about fifteen dollars just on that one CD every week. The funny thing about it is that my mom used to get so mad at me because she would be like, “You’re spending all your money on that dang cd,” and I would still get it no matter what.  I’m still like that to a certain extent today. Music means alot to me. I like alot of old school ballads such as R&B Soul and Jazz. Artists that mean a lot to me are Fantasia, The Tempations, Aretha Franklin, and Tina Turner. If it wasn’t for these artists, we wouldn’t have the artists that we have today. I hear alot of different kinds of music, but I was brought up listening to blues, Jazz, mellow Soul, and R&B. I know real music when I hear it, and I know if it comes from the heart or not, so this is my little short music memory.

I was born deaf and can only hear with my hearing aids around 30 % in both ears. Hearing aids are like a microphone, so every noise in the background comes together. I did listened to music, but had a hard time hearing the artist’s voice while the music was loud. I only could hear bass or a low sound of music like drums or bass guitar. When I was in my sophomore year of college, I decided to see a doctor who does cochlear implant surgery and asked him questions. The doctor did some testing on me, and he said I was perfect for cochlear implant surgery. I still wasn’t pleased with the interview with the doctor, but after praying and talking to my family about it, I decided to do the surgery on my worse ear, which is the left one. The surgery went great and two weeks later, they turned on my implant. I didn’t hear anything at that moment, and it was the same for six months with no improvement. I was really frustrated in those six months and a friend told me “Kyle, have you learned patience from God?” I  said yes, and I told her that I prayed, but I was tired of being deaf. I thought this surgery would have made a big difference. Then she said, “You are not giving enough patience for God. Maybe he is just waiting on you to wait on him instead of for your ear to start hearing.” After that, I started to put God deeply into my heart and continued to lean on his guidance. But a few weeks and months went by, and I still could not hear. About after six months, I noticed a ticking sound, and I said to my roommate “What is that noise?” It was a clock. I started to heard sounds that I never heard before. By summer, I started to hear more of high pitches of instruments and artist’s voices. I started to notice the guitar music in The Fray’s How To Save A Life,  and I was able to separate the sounds between bass, drums, piano, and guitars. I never could do that with my hearing aids. I was amazed that I could tell the different of the pitches of the Fray’s lead singer’s voice in the song along with the music. Later, I attended a Blue Man Group concert in Chicago with my Mom and didn’t even think that this was going to be my first concert with cochlear implant on. I cried during the middle of the show as I heard different sounds I never heard of. It might be silly to others to cry at a Blue Man Group show but for me, it wasn’t. It was the first time, I can hear as close as a human person can hear. Yes, I am still deaf but I got guidance from God and my family to help me with this new implant to hear the nature of God’s world. A year later, I got cochlear implant in my right ear. I am so glad I got it and still enjoy to listening to music.

My grandparents on both sides of my family always came to school concerts, and as I got older my one Grandfather would tell me that I have a gift for music, and that I should get it out there and show people, not just for the money but to let others hear this God givin gift that some say I have. And every time he would come by for dinner or holidays he would say, “Son, do something with your music; don’t let it go to waste because one day you’re going to wake up and try to play, and you won’t know how.” My Mother always tells me that I never finish songs on the Piano, and my brothers always say, “That sounds good. What are you going to do with that?” I simply reply I don’t know. I play piano by ear, and I’m not saying that I’m the only one who knows how, but  I really feel like God did give me a gift to sit down and play and compose music from my heart. Not just for me, but others out there who can play, we should all share our gift of music with the world

My mother bravely fought cervical cancer for two years. She was diagnosed with cancer three months after my father passed away. Basically, she had a 25% chance of making it. My mother was probably the bravest person I could ever know in my life. Although she was faced with tough obstacles and often times the treatment left her in terrible pain, she kept persevering. Ultimately, the way she was able to keep going was through music.
She had a strong faith in God and she had been attending a small church for years. The church happened to need someone to play the piano for the opening. She gladly volunteered. She loved playing hymns because it reminded her so much of her childhood. I will never forget her wearing her glasses on the tip of her nose, and the quick stops and starts when she would practice. Throughout her cancer battle, I would stop by her room and there she was playing, with her tongue to the side of her mouth concentrating “real hard”, and the warm sunlight hitting her beautiful but weak face. When she would play at church, they would tell her to “hit it, maestro” and she would always counter with telling everyone in the pews to “sing loud” to cover up her wrong notes. There were many a wrong note, but she kept playing. She kept playing until one Sunday she went and realized the pain was just too much. Looking back, I think the only time she seemed to be at peace and the pain seemed to lessen was when she was playing and practicing the piano. The cancer spread all over regardless of the treatment, and even when she knew she was dying she still believed that she could be cured. She lost her battle, but she did not lose the fight. Sometimes on a Sunday morning, when the sun just starts to rise, I can feel her playing a simple hymn by the window – some notes pure and sweet, and some notes sour – but then again I can see the quirky smirk of a grin and all I can think is “you are something else”. I truly believe that in spite of everything, her music was her hope—her gift. A musical gift that will always be apart of her memory.

My favorite music memory is of our family of 10 sitting around listening and watching Mom play her steel guitar and my Dad the violin. Then we would try dancing the Irish jig .We had no money and were as poor as they come. We did not know how poor we really were. We thought we had it all and we did … MUSIC and LOVE .

During American Idol Season 7, I would see David Archuleta perform and I said to myself one day I want to do what this amazing kid does. I want to stand on that stage or a bigger stage and sing my heart out. A couple of months later, I went to the doctors for a checkup with my mother and the doctor diagnosed me with Tourette syndrome. I started seeing the twitches come out more and more often prior to the appointment but getting the diagnosis was just the icing to the cake. I remember seeing my dream of performing dying in front of my eyes as the tears just rolled down. It was so depressing because you felt like one day you were really happy but then the next day you find out you have a disadvantage compared with other people who are regular. I was so down everyday, my tics wouldn’t let me sleep. Some way some day I had to find some solution and that was when music became part of my life. Everyday regardless of how strong my tics took over my body I started to sing. Scales, songs, anything to get my mind of the frustrating setback. I knew at that moment that my voice wasn’t amazing but I told myself, “Frank you have struggled so much up to now and now you have the choice of sticking to your dream or letting your neurological condition take it from you.” I made a choice and it took alot of strength but something told me to stick with my gut decision to stay with music. Everyday I sang. Even when I had to be homeschooled for the severity of my twitches and tics I sang. A couple of months I realized the tics were calming down. I thanked God for everything I that day I made the promise that everything that was a part of music would be part of me. I was going to study culinary arts in highschool but I switched to Sound Engineering my senior year only because I made the promise. At this point I did not care. I went through harder things than others for me to stick to something I did not like as much as music. I did a year in music and recovered alot. My music teacher took me to a grammy workshop for only high school music students and in that workshop I fell in love. I said I don’t know how but one day I will be there in the grammys. I don’t know how I kept tell ing myself but I knew that somehow someway there would be something to bring me to it. I graduated highschool and auditioned for an Opera school in which I made it. It is called New World School of the Arts.

There used to be a place called Funhouse Pizza in my hometown of Excelsior Springs, MO. Through the 60s and 70s it was a hot spot for locals until it got a little too hot and burned down. When I was a kid, my folks would take me and Billy Swan’s “I Can Help” was always on the jukebox and quickly became my favorite song! Every time I hear it, even today, I remember the fun time with my family at Funhouse Pizza! It’s amazing the rich power of a single song!

One of my oldest and fondest memories that I have of music is from the second grade, when I received my first instrument. I was so eager and determined to play the saxophone, but the music teacher (who I still exchange Christmas cards with 20 years later) told me I was too small for the saxophone, and that I should play the violin. How disappointing, right?!?! Wrong! I fell in love with that violin. I was so excited to take it home and play for my dad, whom I get my musical interest from. To see him smile from me playing reassured me and made me proud to play the violin. I’ve now passed on my interest to my niece, and I hope that she gets as much enrichment and memories from music being apart of her life as I did (pay it forward!!!).

Christmas is such an amazing time of year, with all of the wonderful decorations and lights and uplifting music! Well, two Christmas’s ago, my large family and I were all sitting around opening presents and a Rap Christmas Song came on. Now we had been listening to Bing Crosby right before, so you can imagine what a shock this was to us all! Well, my brother and I took the lead and started doing the running man all around the house! When we turned around, not only did we hear so much laughter, but all 15 aunts, uncles and grandma’s had gotten up and followed our lead! It was the best three and a half minutes of a Christmas song I’ve ever been a part of!!