Hi, I’m Jon Bielke, a musician. Ever since I could remember, there was the sound of music around me. whether it was the energetic sound of a piano that entranced me, as my dad’s fingers danced across the keys to play the entertainer, or the lone tone of a trumpet that screamed out jazz or a military call. My sister started playing the piano when she was 8, and a few years later, I started playing at 10. Music has led me on a long journey through life, and it consumes my life nowadays, whether it’s piano, drums, violin, guitar, or bass. Music is all around me. I remember thinking to myself what would I do without music, and in my sophomore year of high school, I found out this was the first year I didn’t take orchestra since 4th grade. I slowly realized how important playing an instrument was to me and my family and how much I missed it. Music has been important to my family since before I was born, and I want to tell the story of music in my family through my grandma. As a child, she also grew up around music; her dad played violin and her mom played piano. She started playing piano at a young age alongside her brothers, who played very different instruments, varying from a harmonica to an organ. Growing up on a small farm in Glencoe, it was hard for her family to make a living off music, so it was more of something for fun. This is the story of my family’s music traditions through my grandma’s point of view.