The majority of my family has played an instrument. In middle school, I started Advanced Band as a 7th grader. I played both the clarinet and bass clarinet. I’m currently trying to better skills on the guitar. I look forward to meeting talented students.…
My journey to play the oboe was definitely unconventional. Unlike the other kids in band, I learned my instrument the summer before freshman year; they had been playing since sixth grade. Although, I wasn’t a complete stranger to the music world–I played the violin throughout middle school and absolutely loved it. But with the transition from middle school to high school, I not only changed schools but moved to a different state.…
College is a life changing investment that prepares for life and career. The vast spectrum of knowledge, skills obtained, and experiences from a college degree more than compensates for the monetary cost of tuition. Creating art is my passion; I have always wanted to become a great artist ever since I was a child drawing on my walls and copying pictures from books. I have devoted my life to improving my talents by illustrating my own stories, practicing drawing daily, and challenging myself to earning my own money doing what I love by drawing commissions. Learning how to communicate through illustration is a valuable skill that will live with me for the rest of my life and progressing my artist career.…
I started talking to my band director about the different options I had to reach my goal. She had enough faith in me to recommend starting another instrument. Typically most clarinet players add the saxophone because of the similarities, but I was captivated by another instrument, the trumpet. In the summer of 2010 I began taking lessons on the trumpet through a private instructor and loved it. I was able to audition into the highest level jazz band that school year.…
In high school, I remember where my biggest dream changed into a reality. I was a member of the Greenville High School Tiger Pride Marching Band. I played the alto saxophone. Unlike my bandmates, I did not know how to read music then. I played by ear, and whatever scale, jazz run, or chromatic I heard, I could play it back just like that.…
I have always loved music. It started around nine years ago when I started playing piano. Piano was an instrument that my sisters and mom played and I was fascinated by the sounds that it could make and how you could make songs your own. Fourth grade I played violin but it wasn’t my thing because I could not find the thrill that the piano gives me when I play.…
When I entered the seventh grade, I learned that there 's so many things that I could do with my life. There were endless amounts of clubs and activities to join. At first I found it to be immensely overwhelming, but then I realized that some activities seemed to really draw my attention. So I joined band and athletics. As a little girl band music and sports pretty much consumed me.…
I was in marching and jazz band for 2 years in high school, but I started playing the trumpet since I was a 6th grader. During 7th grade I signed up for jazz and I loved it.…
To know that she thought I should even consider quitting made me feel that I had let myself and my teacher down. After that day, I was called to the guidance office to decide if I would stay or leave the band. I was torn on whether to listen to my teacher or myself. As I sat in the guidance office, the counselor gave me two choices: to quit band or to get a tutor and practice until I could catch up with the other students. After deliberating over it and talking with my parents, I decided that I would stay in the band no matter how difficult it might be.…
As I looked around I came to the realization that these kids around me had the same love for music as me. A little sprout of hope started to form as I started to progress in my musicianship. I knew music would be a big aspect to my life because of my roots, but it was not until high school when I would finally find…
I was waiting for the match ahead of me to be over. I hear the loud whistle come from the match and I walk over to the head table to check in. Butterflies were flying around my stomach. The people at the table hand me my band and I jog over to my coach, and see my opponent, the state champ. I put my green band on as my coach says “All you have to do is win the match and we win the duel.”…
Coming out of fifth grade, I didn’t know what music really was. It just seemed like a bunch of guys playing a plethora of notes in my opinion. But once I joined middle school band, that all changed. Sometime during sixth grade, I had the sudden epiphany that I need to pursue music for as long as possible, because it felt special. It still does.…
“Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence” -Colin Powell. I will never forget when I was awarded one of the two “Most Outstanding Musician” awards when I was a 7th grader at Neil Armstrong Middle School.…
It was a Saturday morning March 17, 1996 I was eight months in my mother’s tummy and my due date was in mid April. Uncle Benito had the crazy idea of going to the snow all because my mother had never seen the snow. My mother told me of a hill she sled down from, a great slope that didn’t leave her feeling to good “No me siento muy bien.” My uncle rushed her to Granada Hills Hospital on the morning of March 19, 1996; I was born seven pounds at eight minutes until eight.…
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.” A career in music has been a dream for many inspired people throughout the ages. Confucius once said, “If you choose a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” But the logistics of that can be challenged by the financial capability of it.…