We were in an atmosphere in the household that you could accomplish anything you set your mind to. If you were willing to put in the hard work, nothing was beyond your grasp.
It was a very odd household, because the grandmothers were so different. Both of them had their own pianos. So it would be duelling pianos by grandmothers.
I always heard 50 Cent, Da Brat, Lil' Kim, all that in the house. My mom's playing them - 50 Cent, Kanye West.
Our household is built on love and respect. And we don't really let negative vibes stay too long. It's worked out. I got a great family, great kids.
I grew up in St. Louis in a tiny house full of large music - Mahalia Jackson and Marian Anderson singing majestically on the stereo, my German-American mother fingering 'The Lost Chord' on the piano as golden light sank through trees, my Palestinian father trilling in Arabic in the shower each dawn.
I play a little acoustic bass and a little guitar. In our house there are instruments everywhere, and I love picking them up and just noodling around. I pick up my husband's tin whistle sometimes. He's really proficient, but it's about the second most annoying instrument - after the banjo - if you don't know how to play it.
In home life contentment is an essential to daily comfort. One discontented person in the house creates an atmosphere fatal to tranquillity.
A little manic was what their house ran on.
In my household growing up in Fayetteville, N.C., music was the great communicator between my parents and me.
A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.
Things are loud in a Jewish household. Conversations are up here; they're pitched pretty high. That's just the way we talk.
My first memories of music are of my mother playing Dominican music in the house because my parents love to dance. They love to throw parties and dance, so there was a lot Latin music in the house.
Growing up my mother played Sarah Vaughan and Nat Cole in the house regularly.
