Music Monday



© 2011, Denis Marsili. All rights reserved

 My amazing wife asked me the other day if I wanted to be a guest poster on her blog (like one who writes posts, not a printed image on paper that one might tape to a wall).  I am was very excited when she said that she wanted me to write about how music influences our family.  I’m sure I’ll have some background info on some different groups/artists, and I will very likely highlight some new music as well as some good oldies - I mean, how could I not? - but the emphasis will be on the significance of music in our lives, and how it influences our heart, soul and mind.  So, here we go…

Music has played an important part in my life since I was very little (and that was a long time ago).  I can remember listening to The Bill Gather Trio and Buck and Dottie Rambo on mom and dad’s 8-track player (yup, I’m that old).  And yes, my iTunes is playing now (listening to Iron and Wine).  Side note:  Think about how music has changed over the past couple decades (yea, when you can talk about something in the past “decades”, you are getting old….).  You go from radio to 8-tracks and vinyl to cassettes.  I remember getting my first Walkman – a portable tape/am/fm player - with big earphones; way before they were cool.  By then I was listening to Michael W. Smith and Wayne Watson, Stryper, The Imperials and sneaking around a copied tape of Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet” album.  Anyways…  Then dawns the “digital age”, CD’s flood the music scene with great sound and compactibility.  Some of you may still remember those.  Now we are in the age of mp3’s and iTunes and iPods and Pads with a gazillion gigs.  I can listen to anything from Aaron Shust to Young the Giant.  I think I have around 18 days of straight music.  If you think I am a bit obsessed, well, then you just may be right. Ok, side note is over…

So, I love music.  If it were up to me music would be playing all the time.  If it isn’t playing somewhere, then it’s certainly playing in my head.  Do I play any instruments, you may ask.  Well, only if my radio is considered an instrument.  I have several instruments, just can’t seem to find the time to learn to play any of them.  That’s ok.  That’s not where God has me right now… maybe sometime in the future.  So, for now, I lean heavily on the gifts and talents of others to get my musical fix. 

In talking about how music has influenced me and my family, I guess a good place to start would be where it all started.  As I mentioned listening to 8-tracks is as far back as I can remember.  My sister and I would sing our heart out and spin around and around on the blue carpet in our living room.  Music has the power to knit our lives together.  Those moments with my sister were the foundation for our relationship later on as teenagers when we would drive down the highway or anywhere blaring Midnight Oil, U2 or The Proclaimers and singing like we were rock stars!!  We weren’t always best friends, we fought like, well, like siblings often do, but there was always good music to unite us once again. 

My parents weren’t supporters of the contemporary music of the ‘80’s, but they would gladly accept Fox 97 – all oldies all the time.  I inherited some of my uncle’s old Beach Boys records and just about wore them out.  As I could scrounge up $5 to by a cassette at K-mart I would expand my Beach Boys collection and Mom and I would harmonize in the car all day long.  If Dad was in the right mood, we could lure him in with The Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun”.  We’d have the family quartet singing with the windows down and to the amusement of all who have passed by.  We even sang as a family in church a few times – phew, that’s a story for another day….

I look forward to sharing more about how music influences our family now. How the kids love to sing and listen to their favorites as loud as possible and how music played its part in drawing my wife and I together.  So much of life is laced with the effects of good music.  It is truly a gift from God for our enjoyment and for his glory. 

P.S. – its 12:11 and I am past my deadline.  Please have mercy as I work, have 6 kids and am plagued with a horrible case of procrastination…

Aaron