Music is something that I’m super passionate about and is a big part of my life. Whether it’s at school jamming with friends, performing in front of other students, or even just trying to write a song in my spare time, I enjoy every part of it.
I started off playing drums at around 11 or 12 years old (I’ve 14 now) because I thought drums were cool to play and I thought they would help me pick up chicks (just kidding – sorry that was a really bad joke).
After about a year or so I started to explore other instruments and I seemed to catch on pretty fast. This is one of the reasons I wish I had started learning when I was younger. I realised I had a talent that I could have been nurturing.
I think my dad suggested piano lessons when I was little but I hated the idea of that, especially when I thought I could be just as good self-taught. Apparently, I get my independent nature from my dad.
A few years later I thought, “Why haven’t I tried teaching myself yet?” That’s when I started learning random songs I liked on the piano we had at home.
The following Christmas my parents bought me a guitar. I was pretty disappointed to be honest, but I decided a few weeks after to try to learn some chords. It was perfect timing, because when I started at my new school we had a music class and the whole class was required to learn guitar.
This pushed me to actually start practicing more, and I eventually started to get better by just playing songs I liked, like what I did with the piano. A few months later I could easily pick a song and play it by looking up the chords. Then I had that same thought again with piano, “Why haven’t I tried teaching myself yet?”
I knew how to play some songs, but I didn’t know any chords so I decided to learn. I looked up a chord chart and learned the main chords in a few minutes. Again, this is why I wish I had started younger, because I was able to pick it up quickly. I feel like I could be so much further along than I am now.
My Mum (who plays a bit of piano) was really surprised when she found out how quickly I had learned. This encouraged me heaps to keep practicing.
Around this time I moved schools again to a school called Templestowe College, which I’ve talked a bit about in my last post. The school basically lets you control your learning. So because all of my subjects are currently electives at this school, I learn things that actually help me learn and things I enjoy, unlike traditional education.
Obviously, I chose music as an elective. This music performance class has helped me immensely with confidence, as I’ve even started singing in front of other people now. That’s been a big thing for me because I never used to sing at all. The class has also helped me generally grow in my musical skills. Here is a clip of me performing Counting Stars by One Republic with my band.
When I have a decent video of me singing I’ll post that.
My influences for song writing are pretty much any song I hear that I like. I’m not sure how much they rub off on my music, but some of my favourite artists are Ed Sheeran, Chance the Rapper, Luke Christopher, Twenty One Pilots, and Mumford and Sons. Obviously that’s a large range of genres so it would make sense that I only take influence in my writing from some of them.
My ultimate music goal is, like many other musos, to have my songs playing on the radio. A more specific/slightly more realistic goal is to be able to support a family by just playing music. But I can dream, right?
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