“Every kid has a sound, and that sound needs to be heard” – Kyla Duckworth, co-Founder – MusicalityStudio
2022 has brought me ‘back’ to my roots in so many ways. I entered into this year with an intentional personal mission – SIMPLIFY. And, RETURN to the innocence of your childhood.
I was raised in a home filled with music. My Mom was a prodigy musician by age 10 and was playing church piano at her small country church for adult choirs and gospel music quartets. By her teen years, she was performing with ‘all star’ musicians across her little hometown region, and even enjoyed some local TV time in her high school years.
As she married our Dad, the young preacher boy, and her kiddos came along — me FIRST — my brother Danny and I began singing alongside Mom, sitting beside her on the piano stool at home and church. By the time we were 6 yrs old, Mom had us in recording studios, making vinyl records and touring across the Gulf Coast with our little namesake family band, The Rosetones.
Fast forward 50 years, now there are three boys — me, Danny, and Jeff (the smartest of the litter!) — and ALL of us have music woven into our DNA, all because of a little girl from Soso, Mississippi … Rosemary Holifield … Momma.
Back to 2022 …
This year, I partnered with Kyla and Dustin Duckworth at Musicality, and began teaching students with their small startup up business. The mission is very simple: every kid has a sound, and that sound needs to be heard.
We just completed our Spring semester at Musicality, with 150-plus students registered, after only two years of literally word-of-mouth and social media marketing in our small suburban cities across North Alabama. It’s been phenomenal to watch this little dream of a music studio come to life and grow in popularity. And, it’s changing ME.
I am remembering as I teach these young students, the JOY of playing, singing, and listening to the SOUNDS of music. I am being transported back in my memories of my own childhood, sitting at the piano bench with Mom in our tiny little houses, in small country churches, and in local civic centers, where we cut our teeth as small town gospel singers and musicians. It’s all coming back to me!
I love watching our students learn, practice, and perform the sounds of music that come out of their young and bright hearts and souls. I love hearing them sing and play their own unique styles and blends of worship songs, pop songs, country songs, techno-funk, and jazz. I am fascinated and inspired all over again, and I am fully confident that the world will be a better place … because of the SOUNDS that are emerging from these kiddos.
These sounds come from hearts of LOVE, which have enjoyed life, death, pandemic, pain, suffering, and yes … a longing for our Creator who is the Giver of the SOUNDS that we make.
So, as sister #AmyGrant sings in her recently remixed familiar pop tune, let’s all go make our sounds and, “… put a little love in your heart … and the world will be a better place …”
#MakingGreatMusic
#MUSICALITY
Hickory Ridge is a small rural community south of Jackson Mississippi and west of Hwy 49 at Florence Mississippi. These are salt of the earth country folks. 
This week I have watched a small town country church turned “move of God” congregation now reaching thousands in Rankin County, as they pour out their hearts in worship, love and restore broken people, and serve the needs of everyone God will place in their paths.
