Joseph Willcox Jenkins was born to William Jenkins and Genevieve Brosseau in the city of Philadelphia in 1928. Jenkins was exposed to music starting at a young age, likely receiving interest and exposer from his mother, who played piano and sang. Beginning at age six, Jenkins took piano lessons from his mother. As part of his piano instruction, Jenkins recited melodies on the piano and transposed the melodies into different keys as. This practice gave Jenkins a great leap into aural skills training and transposition from an early age. At age eight, Jenkins began singing in his local school and also explored his sight singing and composing abilities. His expansions into the bass during high school also lead to compositional opportunities,
