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Hi @outlander and everyone, wow this is a subject that seems likely to get a lot of interesting responses, including a typically long one from me! 
@Smc, loved reading your story about the part music has played in your life. I so wanted one of those organs your father bought when you were young. My mum bought me a run down piano when I was about 10, used to have fun on that, though never was any good really. I also studied the violin when I was at high school. I really wanted to do clarinet but we were poor, the school had a loans program, and the only instrument I remotely wanted to learn from it was violin. Unlike you, I didn't stick with it that long, just long enough to torture everyone with my off key playing. It's a hard instrument to learn, especially in the first stages, because it doesn't have frets, not to mention the trickiness of bowing technique. My great claim to fame in my teens was getting 100% on the statewide Grade 2 music theory exam. Typically me, I dropped it after that.
I started learning guitar from my dad when I was about six or seven and have rarely been without one since (except for a period of time after mine was stolen). He wasn't a great player, self-taught, but entertained a huge number of people singing and playing in living rooms and parties with his Aussie country music. Also did a bit of radio and stage performing too. He played a lot of Slim Dusty and also wrote his own songs. A couple of them were recorded by old time country music legend, Buddy Williams.
I have never been a great guitar player either, mostly did it to accompany myself singing. I had a good voice when I was younger, even as a child, if I do say so myself. It's wrecked now sadly due to taking up smoking at a time of great stress, a habit I've never been able to kick in the 20 years since, probably so difficult too because of my mental illness. That's a thing I share too with my dad. It was so obvious with him, even without ever getting a diagnosis or any support for it. Another sad story.
Back to singing though, it's been a thing with me all through my life up until the voice started to pack it in over the past five years or so. Choirs when I was younger, stage musicals, folk club performances, a brief stint in a rock band when I was 50 (talk about mid-life crisis, lol), a number of years providing vocals for electronic musicians, busking when I was broke and living in Sydney, and, like Dad, lots of loungeroom venues at various times.
In terms of listening to music, my first real music love was Elvis Presley, he was probably the first man I loved aside from my Dad! Fell in love with him one night home alone watching TV. It was a repeat of that concert from the sixties when he was all in black leather and still slimmish. Didn't know who he was but met my parents excitedly at the door when they came home, telling them about this amazing man I had seen on TV. 'Oh, Elvis the Pelvis', my Dad said, lol.
Classical music was a big thing for me too when young, as I did ballet for some years and got into classical that way. I used to put on Tchaikovsky and dance wildly around the flat. The best and wildest time for doing that was when I was home alone. Loved musicals since childhood too, stage and film, and listened to a lot of Julie Andrews. I also knew a lot of hymns from the religious school I went to. Country music, Presley, classical, musicals and hymns. Pretty much set the tone for the eclectic taste I have had in music ever since.
Other favourites for listening over the years have included: Queen, Neil Young, Massive Attack, Esther Lamandier (medieval music), Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, Groove Armada, Gershwyn, Shpongle, Emma Kirkby (another early music singer). Favourite genres over time: very old American blues, later blues, bluegrass, disco ('I Feel Love' being a long time favourite there). So many more songs, acts and genres I can't think of right now. A crazy mixed up list! My favourite song of all time is probably 'Summertime'. I also spent about a decade listening only to independent artists that pretty much nobody else would have heard of. These days I mostly listen to electronic chill music on the SBS TV channel, or to ABC jazz radio.
Music: how much it shapes our lives!
It was very good to read others posts.
Today is special. I have a concert in the city tonight. My son has a concert in the afternoon in the country. I was going to bring him, but he arranged to go with gf and will be hanging around with his opera company friends and wont need me, which is great.
My next major work requires me to laugh in rhythm and song.
