Sonny's inability to communicate properly contributes to the misunderstandings he has in life, especially with his brother the narrator. While Sonny's music isn't just about the relationship between him and his brother, it tells Sonny's story. The story is titled "Sonny's Blues" although evidence in the story suggests that Sonny plays a genre of jazz known as bebop. The blues is described in the story as a "tale of how we suffer, how we are happy and how we can triumph is never new, it must always be heard." (Baldwin) In the story, the blues is not a musical genre but rather the symbol of Sonny's suffering that ends in triumph. Sonny has strayed from the musical path for too long. Baldwin writes “Sonny had not been near a piano in over a year. And he wasn't on better terms with his life” to show the lowest points Sonny found himself at. So Baldwin shows that Sonny has returned to be redeemed through his music. As he acts at the end of the story, Sonny holds nothing back from expressing himself