What role does music play in your life?

I was reading a friend’s blog post on the same subject (which I normally try not to do before I’ve written my own), but she finished with a quote by John Miles
‘Music was my first love, and it will be my last. Music of the
future and music of the past’.
This quote is a favourite of mine and pretty much sums up my relationship with music.

Music has played a huge role in my life. I wouldn’t be married to the person I am without it or have the circle of friends that I do. I wouldn’t be teaching if I hadn’t been inspired by my secondary school music teacher.

During my teenage years I was a member of a local steel band and seemed to spend my entire life in the company of the other players, who in turn became life long friends and one became my husband. We even played an arrangement of the John Miles song at the National Festival of Music for Youth. I went away to University and, even though I studied maths, all my friends were studying music and members of the college steel band that I joined. On my return to my home town I became musical director of the band that I had been in before I went away.

Life took over and I became so busy that I had to walk away as I couldn’t commit enough time to do the job properly. Life moves on I suppose. We’re currently in the process of organising a reunion as it’s now 25 years since we joined the band.

Now I don’t get time to play, which slightly frustrates me. I’ve been playing musical instruments for 30 years but the piano currently sits gathering dust, I can’t remember the last time my flute or saxophone came out of their cases and my steel pan is still in storage from when we moved 13 months ago.

My life is still linked to music as my husband sells musical instruments for a living and we go to gigs quite often (but not add often as life before children!).

Music has been such a large part of my life and it’s always sitting in the background reminding me of how my life has developed as a result of my involvement with it. I’m sure music will come back into my life in the future, perhaps when little B gets a bit bigger.