They say that I'm the most musically talented out of us Tracy sons. They've always said that, but it isn't true. Not really. My brothers are all musical, but it just so happens that my predilection is more noticeable.

Scott is a percussionist. He's always tapping on things, whether out of impatience, stress or just plain absent-mindedness. It's always a constant; a representation of him being a man of action. You'll never see him sitting idle out of choice. He's our family's pulse. We know that something's wrong if Scott skips a beat.

John. Well. John's a singer. Not perfect by any means. From his stuttering as a kid he has a tendency to mumble, but he's really in tune. He's the only one of us that can actually carry a note at all. I always laugh because he used to sing in the echoing shower of the homestead. Man, that place had some great acoustics! He has Mom's talent, and the gift of words, though he usually keeps them to himself. I think that he'd have made a good songwriter.

Gordon is a harmonicist. Like the instrument, he's impossible to work out on first approach, but when you've given an examination and gotten to know him, you've got how he operates. Unpredictable, and quite prone to random acts of spontaneity, Gordon's entire persona is based on his active mind; how his actions are played out. Disorder untamed.

Alan? Alan would have to be the cymbals. Loud, brash and explosive, his entire bearing is of sudden, flighty distraction. He gets easily bored; constantly needing new things to occupy him, but that just makes him all the more focused on things that manage to capture his interest.

I think that I see my brothers like this because I was the only one who had any formal training. Up until the end of elementary school we had the basics of musical education, but I was the only one who continued the lessons that our mother gave us on piano when we were small. I think that I'm the one who communicates in a musical light because of that simple choice.

Timbre, tone colour, tempo, dynamics. I see the world as music. The shifting of moods and people's behaviours. Night and day, the changing seasons. It's in everything. I see and 'hear' in terms of how things might sound on an instrument.

I guess that if I was to describe myself, I'd probably be a violin. The accompanist, and the one that accentuates all of my brothers' primary traits. A low, soft harmony, I play my own tune. Peaceful, cogent, but I can be loud and strident when circumstances demand it.

Music has always called to me. I can't describe it. There's no indication of why I see the world like that, why I use it to communicate. Perhaps it's the strongest link I have to Mom. It's always there, a low undercurrent of melody that brings joy to anyone who hears it.