Having a Musical Friend is not Easy

In the excerpt from “Rock & Roll JIhad” by Salman Ahmad, a boy’s life is revised by his first rock band experience. Salman had shown up to a Zed Zeppelin concert completely unaware of any songs he sang. When the first song had played Salman’s spirit had been taken away with the music. The guitar player, jimmy page had put a spell on salman, the technical fingering Jimmy on the guitar had blown salams mind completely. What had felt like a split second to him had realistically been almost three hours. His soul had stayed attached to the music, that moment had drastically transformed Salman’s look on life. From that moment on He knew that he had found his passion and his purpose in life.

Singleton was his friendliness. Normally, the relationship with a music teacher is more close knit and personal than with other teachers. I spent over 4,380 hours with Mr. Singleton. Every lesson I caught a glimpse into his life. Every lesson he changed my life. This May it will be 2 years since Mr. Singleton died. His health had been deteriorating for the past few weeks. I was preparing to leave for a trip to visit Julliard in New York City. He told me not to worry and he expected me to tell him every detail about my visit. On our return flight from the Chicago airport, my Mom received a phone call. Mr. Singleton had been hospitalized right after I left because of his Leukemia. Although I knew he was ill, Mr. Singleton had always persevered through his cancer. No matter how many time he wrestled with his disease or refused chemotherapy, he bounced back and continued teaching. Our friends called to tell us that Mr. Singleton was dead. I would not make it in time to attend the funeral. That was the end of friendship that I will carry with me

It is no secret that music has a strange way of reaching people who were previously thought to be too far gone. Music has the capability to connect to individuals and touch them in a way that causes them to have some strange reactions (Warner et al, 35-36). These reactions aren’t fully understood but have the possibility to lead to great medical advancements. While some psychologists, and parents are strong believers in the helpful effects of music on people’s mental health, others see the dangers that come with music’s great influence and think it could be used as a dangerous tool against individuals.

We could hear the crowd chatting behind the dark red curtain. We looked at each other with big grins, and I could tell Neill was nervous because he was sweating really bad although, so were Greg and I. A voice came over the sound system and it said “without further ado put your hands together for the The Whippersnappers.” The curtain opened slowly and the place was filled to the brim with people. I felt a feeling so undescribable in the pit of my stomach. It didn't hurt but it did feel weird. Greg introduced the band, surprisingly calm, and we played our first song, Going Down This Road Feeling Bad. We got such a huge applause I thought I could feel the air from the crowds clapping. After playing our whole list we did a bow and walked proudly off the stage. We were so happy about how it went we couldn't stop smiling! We got paid and the place gave us a free pepperoni pizza, which tasted really good. We talked about the next practice and what we should work on. We agreed that Greg's guitar was too loud, and Neill’s bass was too quiet. We fixed those problems really easily. And a couple days later, we had a bar owner in Indianapolis ask us to play there. We were all very happy. We think that this band couldn't work together any better than we already. We are currently still a band and we are all three good

Just a few days ago we were heading in the opposite direction. When I say “we” I mean all of us, the whole band. It’s a sort of mentality that was driven into us since sixth grade, that we are a collective unit and are only as strong as our weakest player. I was once again alone in my bus seat with my headphones on, blasting some sort of screaming music into my already damaged ears. Even though it was still day I slept away most of the trip. The bus was heading towards Indianapolis; the Godwin Heights marching band of 2010 was having its final hurrah at the Lucas Oil Stadium. We had just got first at the Ford Field House which was hosted by The Michigan Competing Band Association, and our hopes were high to repeat that. The show that year was

At first, standing outside in the cold for six hours didn’t seem worth it just to see a concert. My sister and I were the first two in line and we were also alone for over an hour, and it appeared to me that our enthusiasm got the better of us again. We didn’t talk much, not because we didn’t want to, but because we were freezing and I foolishly only brought one jacket. At this point in my life I was facing the harsh reality of growing up and it was terrifying. I didn’t know what I wanted to

For all my life, I had known Justin. In 2008, when I was 7, we decided to go up to his family’s cabin in Tahoe. My experiences there were the most memorable of anything in my life, and I wish I could relive it. The earliest thing I remember was sitting in the back of his dad’s Ford, and driving in the middle of the night. We had so many blankets, we could barely even fit in the back. I remember that we were listening to the beatles on an iPod he had. This wasn’t one of the new ones though, this was the old 3rd generation iPod, with the FireWire connector and the glowing orange buttons. After 6 hours of driving, most of which were spent sleeping, we finally arrived.

Never in a million years had I never imagined that falling in love would be so easy. On February 16, 2010 I was honored to be the girlfriend of Dante’ Lamont Williams. The moment I laid my eyes on him I felt as if the world was in my hands. Having someone besides family to encourage; build me up was amazing. Daily we would go on park walks just to explain why his love for me was strong. Ever since the first day we met he would call me his “golden piece”. A golden piece to Dante’ was when he was down and out; clueless on what to do I would be the one to put a smile on his face just to encourage him and let him know that everything was going to be just fine. I never thought I would go from loving someone so hard to watching him take his last breath in my arms.

Whether it’s a musician, singer, artist or anyone else, everyone have to go through the journey of life by facing difficulties. It’s a story about one day, just like several days where a jazz musician has been interviewed near the national forest. After being asked about why he changed his profession, he tells something amazing. (He tells) In this world there are two types of people: Polite, shy and religious, and on the other hand who is the self- styled ladies’ man. My life starts from ‘World War’ where from several bombings and deaths including fire in forests my family decides to change the Home- town to Paris. As a child I was polite and shy. When I had family problems during which my mother and father divorced and got separated. I changed my interest several times including arts, music, and writing and now as an adult in girls. I had several girls in my life. Finally, One day when I was in a good mood because of joking around with the friends, after the lunch I met someone and for the first time, I felt as if I am so lucky to be the part of this world. She seems to be so attractive to me; I have seen several girls in my life. Her body was symmetrical in shape; eyes were like the shining star that comes in the morning, making the sky bright. Something was special in her I have seen several hair styles but I cannot forget her hair; that was while touching on her face, more beautiful than the peacock feathers. She was drinking water; I wished to be that water bottle

I sat in my seat and held on to the neck of my sousaphone. I felt fear as our band director handed out the new piece of music we would be performing for the upcoming Spring concert season. Sweat slowly dripped down the side of my forehead as I began to heat up. It was my first time performing with the Santee band. I had been thrown into the world of musical performance without any real instrumental experience. I knew nothing of how to properly play the sousaphone. I felt fear cover me as we began to read our new piece of music. It was called Critical Mass, a level 2 song, that was a roller coaster of notes. As we played the song for the first time, I was all over the place. I couldn't play any of the rhythms right. I failed at being able to

Well a few years after leaving the O’Jays my new group Dunn & Bruce Street has a new record released. Suddenly, I am receiving multiple calls from Maxine to please come to Philly. I finally go and upon arrival at her house, she greets me with a different atmosphere. Her apartment is candlelit and smells of good food on the stove saturated the room; never had it like this before. Maxine has run a bath for me and invites me to just lie in bed for serving. She has the radio on and to my delight, our song plays 3 times in an hour representing high rotation.

The time I’ve spent over the summer I listened to a lot of music and its was mostly hip-hop and R&B and rap, but I liked pop as well as a genre in music and while I was sulking over my old life in Wallingford school I developed a close attachment to music to deal with the emotional tension that was going on within myself. At the time school at Branford had started and I didn’t know it exactly at that time but this was the point where I was started to write music I was hooked on all the music from over the summer I guess my mind started translating beats and words and I can recall these beats and words because these became my first song ever written while I came to Branford. The periods I spent over the course of the first year at Branford had been socially and emotionally traumatic for me I cannot lie; the people there were nice some friendly and some not and I found myself alone most of the time. At these point in school I started to question myself and my social skills with others and my self-esteem continued to drop.The epiphany I had happened when I felt as though I wasn’t important anymore and when that happened I started to write songs to express these feeling inside of me;I hadn’t said anything about my days at school to anyone besides my mother, but even with her she couldn’t fully understand what I as in my situation was going

“Loving can hurt, loving can hurt sometimes. But it’s the only thing that I know……….” I was listening to this song as I walked into my first Student Government Association meeting. When I walked in, I saw a guy who was concarate at his laptop. He had clean, short, and curly black hair; on top his head sat a pair of purple sunglasses. As I walked closer to him, he raised his head and smiled at me. He told me his name was Pedro and we began to converse. When the rest of the members arrived, the meeting started and he took the lead. Pedro seemed friendly and full of leadership skills that was the first impression he gave me. All his good qualities piqued my interest and moved me to get to know him better. However, I was cautious because I was

found me. His sound was more of classic rock, with hints of a heavier style, but not metal. In his lyrics I found comfort and insight, and I became transfixed by his performance of such beautiful songs. Eric’s music transcended a powerful sense of authenticity through his poetry and haunting melodies. Because of the passion of his music, he helped me to heal my hidden emotional wounds. Music can bring peace and healing.

I am now listening to music to relieve some stress. This stress has primarily been caused by the fact that I am now writing this essay for the third time-it was unsaved when the school server shut down, therefore deleting it from existence, and then it didn’t properly save the second time. Sadly, this has happened before to other students. My favorite song is “The Awakening,” by the band Switchfoot. Ever since I first heard it when I was little, it has gotten my heart to beat faster and my blood to pump harder. I can barely even sing along because I’m too busy enjoying the