Music and Family blog by Zelena Hull

 I'm interviewing my mother here.  I have the question I asked and then her response under it. 

1.       What was the first genre of music you ever listened to? 

The first genre of music I ever heard or remember hearing was Hispanic music and classical music.  My grandmother raised me and that is all she listened too. She would put the music on and do art every Sunday after church.

2.       Did you like it?

Back then I liked it Ok. I liked the classical music the best and Vivaldi inspired me to take flute lessons as a teenager.  I like playing music more than listening to music.  My grandmother had an old pump organ that I would play as a child. This part I loved. Now I don’t care for Hispanic music, it sounds off key and is irritating to listen too. It actually gives me tension headaches.  Classical music is ok but not something I would care to listen too often.  I do love playing it. In all honesty I don’t listen to very much music.  I do love watching it be created though.  I guess the process is funner than the final product.  

3.       I know you played the flute in school.  What was that like?

I absolutely loved playing the flute in school. It came extremely easy and I was always first chair out of all the instruments and grades after my first year.  This would be my 8th grade year. I had a beautiful sterling silver professional flute that I actually could play the flute the moment I picked it up. I only took band for a few years and had surpassed all the students in the entire school that took band class,through 12^th grade.  I also was in the marching band.  Which I enjoyed. I stopped playing after a few years because my music instructor had told me that I had excelled farther than any student in his career and that he couldn’t teach me anymore.  He urged me to take private lessons. He moved away and it broke my heart.  It also stopped me from pursuing it further. I don’t know if teachers know the true impact they have on their students. I truly loved my music teacher.

4.       What music did you first pick out on your own?

My favorite music was 80’s pop rock and rock and roll.  I like both equally.  It is interesting how music defines moments in time.  If you hear a song it brings memories up that you had forgotten.

5.       How would you describe your musical tastes changing over time?

I still like the same music as I did throughout my entire life.

6.       How has life affected your relationship to music?

My daughter has affected me the most.  When Zelena started singing it made me more interested in music. Before I never really went out of my way to listen to music and hadn’t played the flute in 20 years.  Now I’m listening to Zelena’s stuff and some other musicians were at concerts.  For a while I was scouring the internet for covers that could sing for competition, then gigs.  She made me listen to it more.