Grace Whitaker

Professor Edmiston
Eng 101
11 Sept 2016
Literacy Narrative: Draft 1
I was raised in a very large, very musical family. That said, we werent musical in
the usual highly trained, knows theory like the back of their hand kind of way. Instead our
family had a long tradition of learning music by ear. This skill was passed down from
parent to child, generation after generation. It was a perfect precursor to a deeper and
more enriched understanding of music and it shaped us into young addicts starving for
the cultural enrichment music provides.
I have these very distinct memories of my mother and my three sisters driving
down the road singing in beautiful four part harmonies. I would listen to how their voices
intertwined into a perfect and tight braid . Moreover, I remember how they would
produce these beautiful sounds so effortlessly as if it were a skill they were born
knowing. I remember my tiny self trying to contribute this.This typically resulted in me
just repeating what they sang an octave down and my older sister ultimately scolding me
for this and pointing out thats not how harmonies work! Occasionally, however, I
would have a very large jolt of bravery and attempt to create my harmonies. Of course
this would fail completely and the beautiful sounds they had produced would quickly fall
apart into a muddled dissonant mess.
Im very stubborn; I always have been. So I didnt let my musical failures get to
me. I knew that if I tried hard enough and focussed enough I could someday be just as

good as my family. So, being a young child raised in a very poor household, I did what
any 8 year old kid, who's mother worked two jobs, and had limited resources would do : I
begged, and whined to my sister to teach me all she knew. This took some time, but
eventually she caved.
My training initially began with a vocal proclamation from the deep abhorrence
my sister had toward helping me. These sessions would usually only last 15 or so minutes
and werent very productive. I would learn a couple new chords on piano, she would have
me try to figure out new chords and try to name them correctly and then she would move
on with her 12 year old responsibilities. As time went on, however, she began to enjoy
our little lessons and eventually became the one initiating them. I think I became her
project; Something fun for her to work on when writing in her diary and playing game
cube became repetitive. Soon my lessons extended to 45 minutes and became more
rigorous and advanced. I quickly learned to identify major and minor chords, I could tell
what was dissonant and what was not, and even began to hear and reproduce simple
harmonies. I soaked in every ounce of knowledge I could. As I began to understand
music even better, my addiction grew and pushed me into new endeavors.
When I started high school I naively auditioned for the advanced womens choir.
At this point, I still could not read music and had only basic hand-me-down theory
knowledge from my older sister. This choir was notorious for not letting freshman so the
odds of me getting into this choir were slim to none. But alas, the impossible became
possible. I was the only freshman in this choir snd I distinctly remember being extremely
nervous during my first semester there. I knew I didnt quite fit in with these older, better
trained singers. They viewed music as a science; something tried, tested, with many

formulas that had been proved time and time again. My young brain, however, viewed
music as this amazing, nebulous, and highly addictive amorphous beast that I wanted to
know more about. My views were considered an aberration to these masters of the trade.
My director knew that I could not read music and so he would work with me after
school . He would play my part on piano, and I would sing it back to him. He taught me
the basics of written music: how many beats were assigned to what notes, how to identify
the key signature, and how to read time signatures. He was giving me the basic formulas
for music: he was turning me into a music scientist.
Learning these building blocks of musical literacy made the world a much more
colorful and interesting place. As I began to understand basics in music like intervals in
chords and different rhythms, the world around me became a symphony of its own. New
York City was my favorite symphony. The sound of shoes hitting the ground in an upbeat
tempo, the trains clicking on the tracks, their horns sounding, people talking to each other
or whistling, the sounds of air conditioning machines whirring, cars honking all had an
order now. They were all instruments in this symphony. But I was hungry for more. I
knew I needed to be able to look at a piece of paper and hear the music like so many of
my peers could. I needed to feed my addiction in every way possible. .
While I was able to somewhat read music at this point, I was teased for my lack of
apparent cognizant of the basics of sight reading. I understood some foundational rules,
but I was not able to dissect the music as quickly as my peers. I could hear the music in
my head, but when it came time to say which note was doe and which note was sol, I
took much longer than my class mates. I didnt want to be stuck in this pattern of reading
music slowly. Since my choir director was only available a couple hours at this time and I

already learned all that I could from my sister, I needed to take initiative in self teaching.
I began studying books on theory in the library and trying to sight read pieces using
solfge. I downloaded music training apps and did extensive research online. Soon I was
learning to sight read even faster.
In my second year being in this choir a new choir director was hired. This new
director was adamant that we learned to sight read proficiently. When he announced this
my heart sank. I had been studying a superfluous amount, but I didnt feel confident in
my sight reading skills yet. The director pulled out a stack of sight reading practice
books. He told us to turn to the first page. I nervously opened it and looked down at the
music. The first note was doe. I relaxed a little bit. I could do this. We all sang the piece
and to my surprise I could do it flawlessly. We did several of these exercises and I was
able to do all of them with minimal mistakes. I felt amazingly accomplished. All of my
hard work and time had finally payed of.
I soon discovered the work of Eric Whitacre. His music fascinated me. I wanted
to understand why he chose certain melodies and harmonies. What drove him to write the
lyrics he did. With my new ability to understand music I was able to analyze piece after
piece; something I could not have done a year ago.
Musical literacy has reached into many facets of my life. Starting out as someone
with a deep love for music but no great opportunities to start learning only strengthened
my desire to learn. I firmly believe that it is possible to learn any form of literacy despite
financial and time restrictions. The simple solution is to not let personal stubbornness and
disbelief, and other peoples negativity become a barrier toward education. One cannot
conform to the system that teaches that you can only learn when certain things are made

available to you. Overcoming adversity and developing a broad range of literacies can
only grow you as a person. Overcoming the obstacles I did to become literate in
something I am passionate about changed me into a more motivated and hardworking
person. It taught me that anything is achievable with enough focus and hard work.