Beginning from a very early age, young Caitlyn saw the passion that many people had when she would go to square dance halls where her father worked as a square dance caller. Coming from a small community known as Los Olivos, CA, about 45 minutes north of Santa Barbara, twenty year old Caitlyn Ceder began her appreciation for music by tagging along with her father when he went to work at the dances. Seeing the amount of happiness that the music would bring to the dancers, Caitlyn began to take introductory lessons to music which would teach her to play a recorder and then she would proceed to join her first band class at the age of twelve. In said class, Caitlyn, wanting to be a little different than expected, began to learn her first instrument,…show more content… Caitlyn’s father, Vic Ceder, is a well known square dance caller who performs all around the world. Vic Ceder is a musician as well who has known how to play the piano from a young age. When he was a teenager, Vic and Debbie (Caitlyn’s mother) who met at a teen square dance group in Santa Barbara, would learn the dances and later in his teenage years he would begin to make square dance calls. Caitlyn would accompany her father while he was out making calls and participate in the dances as well. Her father was a great influence into her picking up an instrument and beginning to learn how to play music. Because of her father’s influence, she became interested in music and wanted to learn how to play herself. She says that she aspires to be as great of a musician as her father is and hopes that she will continue to learn and progress in her musical abilities well into the future (Caitlyn). Her father’s interest in music that is not mainstream also influenced Caitlyn’s want of learning something out of the ordinary. Just as she became interested in Jazz and to play the saxophone, her father learned from a young age to play the piano and focused mainly on playing ragtime tunes. His love for music has also led him to write several books along with his wife and to start a website with resources on square…show more content… Jazz is a form of music that is said to be “America’s only true art form,” (McLaughlin, para 1). According to the Washington Post, Jazz is seen this way because this type of music was born here in the United States about a hundred years ago (McLaughlin, para 1). Jazz was started by African American slaves in the Early 20th Century during their work. Slaves would create music to pass the time while they were hard at work. Jazz has the basic structures of music such as a melody, rhythm, and harmony but what is special about Jazz is that it is based mainly on improvisation (McLaughlin, para. 3). Improvisation is the act of coming up with something right on the spot meaning that the musicians who perform Jazz do not read it off of music sheets, they just go with the flow. This is what Caitlyn says she loves most about Jazz. She states, “I love Jazz because it has rock elements in it and it has a lot of basis in improvisation. I love being able to play what comes to me without having to follow a certain method.” (Ceder). Her desire to do things out of the norm is what has fueled her all her life and her love of music has allowed her to meet various people who share the same interests as
