I was 7. My dad would always play a CD. He would play it again.. and again. After a few days, another one. And a different one. When my dad wakes up, he plays one first. I wake up to that tune. When he comes home, he takes care of a few things while listening to one. Before we eat, he would turn the radio on or put on another track.

And then I was 10. My mom calls me because we are about to go to dinner. I rush to the CD player, put on Toni Braxton’s “Secrets”, press play and switch to number 4. And then I go to the dining table and eat.

Early morning, my dad would play Kenny Loggins Live. I learn to love his lively acoustics and mellow vocals. I get my first LSS. Kenny Loggins’ Conviction of the Heart. I was 11.

Our helper gets addicted to a show on TV and calls me every single time it’s on to watch. I get hooked and start to look for the band whose show I’m watching. I search for their CDs in this music store on the mall’s first floor. They had a 2-CD package, a karaoke version and a live version. I check the prices and leave. Two weeks later, I go back and buy them all. My dad knows all about it. He grabs a songbook with all their songs in it and a guitar. He tries to play each song properly, and I, try to sing along. I was 12.

I was in high school. My dad would fetch me after school. “We’ll go home together”, he says. On the way home, he parks on the side of the street and tells me to go out of the car with him. We head towards a shop which has a lot of little stalls selling all kinds of DVDs. He asks to see a few copies of these singers’ concerts. It was then that I knew about Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Nazareth and Eric Clapton. I was 13.

When I was 14, our class was taught by Mr. Ferrer to play the guitar. He was our music teacher. He talks about doing an A, a D and an E. In between periods, my friends and I would learn how to play more songs. When I get home, I go on learning with the help of songbooks and frets on paper. My mom tells me about this song which sounds really familiar. My dad and I used to always sing this song together. I’m decided on playing the song perfectly. I play it nonstop everyday. Paul McCrane’s “Is It Okay If I Call You Mine?”

My dad calls me and asks me to bring the guitar. He’d tell me to play something, anything. I played Evanescence’s “My Immortal”. He listens for a while and picks up the guitar to jam along. It was the first of many jamming sessions.

Two months pass and I learn how to pluck. More months pass and I enter music school enrolled in Basic Guitar. My teacher assesses my guitar skills and asks me to enroll in a more advanced class. Electric or Classical. I call my dad. He explains one after the other. I’m convinced that he thinks I should take classical even if he doesn’t say it explicitly. I enroll in Classical Guitar. Weeks later, I learn how to read and play notes. I don’t stop. I know my dad wants me to learn something he doesn’t know. He never had time to learn how to read notes. I learn Greensleeves, “Etude” by Ferdinando Carulli, “Allegretto” by Frederick M. Noad, “Study in Ligados” and “Saraband” by Robert de Visee. I keep on playing while my family sits down to watch a movie. I was 15.

My dad plays a DVD. The concert of some rock band from Ireland. I listen while doing my chores. I fall in love with “Stuck in a Moment”. I was 16 and in love with U2.

I have no memory of the first moment my dad introduced me to music. No idea what the first song was that he played which made me deeply attached to it. But it doesn’t matter. Because I have enough memories to make that feeling last a lifetime.

The night of my first breakup, my dad unknowingly comforts me by playing a Rod Stewart concert that helps me mend myself. I hurt with “First Cut is the Deepest”. Early morning, my dad plays a Sting album. I fall in love with “When We Dance”. My dad plays an America Live DVD and I spot two songs. “From a Moving Train” and “The Last Unicorn”. My dad plays Journey’s “Frontiers” and I start to love them as much as my mom does. My dad plays Bon Jovi Live. He keeps on replaying this one song. We both fell in love with “(You Want To) Make A Memory”. My mom asks me to play Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer”. I ask why. She says, “Your dad just can’t seem to get it right.” My dad asks me to listen to Queen Live. All Hail Freddie Mercury! “Because there’s nobody else who can rock a crowd like that. Not even Bono.” My dad would ask me to look up parts of concerts on Youtube. He’d tell me to watch “Bark at the Moon”. “Nice isn’t it? Making the guitar talk.” My dad would play Earl Klugh’s Live Concert. ♥ “Living Inside Your Love”. He would play “Stairway to Heaven” and I would watch closely so I could play it the way he does. And he’d tell me all about Van Halen’s “Love Walks In”. I was addicted. I still am. My dad introduces me to an all around man. He plays the guitar, the piano. He sings well and plays the drums. I watch him sing “In the Air” brilliantly while playing the drums during his concert. He was my first crush. Phil Collins.

My sister, my dad, myself and the Beatles. We would sing all the songs we know from my dad’s Beatles music book. We have the lyrics on paper but we just can’t fit the right words in sometimes. We keep singing anyway. I request “Julia” and we would always be like, “Half of what I say is meaningless. But I na na na na na na na Julia.”

December, 2011. It has been a very stressful month. I’m unaware of the date, of what’s approaching. My dad plays a few Christmas songs. I wake up to those songs. And I realize it’s almost Christmas.

January, 2012: My dad starts to open his Christmas gifts. What can I do? He’s a busy guy. He opens the present we gave him and hangs it on our tree. A brown Beatles shirt. “This is now my favorite shirt,” he says.