When did you start playing guitar?
I started playing guitar when I was seven-years-old. My middle school (Bank Street) offered a lot of after school programs and my mom let me pick one. I chose guitar and took lessons with my friend Tess (seen in the pictures above). In third grade, I decided I also wanted to take violin lessons (turned out it wasn’t really for me) so I had to switch to taking guitar lessons with a new teacher due to time conflicts. Bank Street had this awesome rock band program and I joined it in fifth grade. That is when I switched to playing electric guitar. Playing in a band with other people was really fun and motivated me to keep playing even when I felt bored with it. My parents never forced me to play guitar/practice, and I think that is a big part of why I still play today. I focus on playing songs I enjoy with my friends and make sure I never dislike playing the instrument. Yes, my general guitar technique and music-reading abilities have suffered greatly because of that, but I think it’s worth it. What is your favorite song to play?
I have so many favorite songs! At the moment I have been playing For Once In My Life by Stevie Wonder a lot to practice new chords. I tend to “noodle” a lot (a term used by my old teacher Anthony to mean mindless guitar playing) and my go-to noodling songs are Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix, the solo from Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd, and Hey by the Pixies. I also love playing Hotel California by the Eagles and Scar Tissue by the Red Hot Chili Peppers because I have such fond memories of performing them with other people. |
Who inspired you to play the guitar? Have any icons?
I wouldn’t say that one specific person inspired me to start playing guitar, but a lot of people inspired me to keep playing. My old teachers Henry and Anthony and my current teachers Karl and Ms. Kernell have definitely inspired me the most. Watching them play really showed/shows me how much I can improve if I really put effort into doing so. As for guitar icons, the first people that come to mind are Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), St. Vincent, Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), and Ann Wilson (Heart). My parents played songs by them a lot when I was younger and it feels really cool to be able to play (some) of those songs now. How has playing guitar affected your life?
Playing guitar has definitely made me more confident. Something fun about an electric guitar is that you can plug it into an amp, turn on distortion, and play a G chord and anyone who doesn’t play guitar will loose their mind. A lot of easy guitar pieces look/sound a lot more complicated than they actually are, so being able to play them really boosts your confidence. The more confident you look, the better the audience will receive your music. In addition, I have made so many friends through music. I bonded with my middle school classmates from playing in a band with them, and I made a lot of new friends at camp this past summer by playing in a band. Also, I was recently at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland and they had a room full of instruments. I picked up a guitar and started playing and the next thing I knew I was playing Smells Like Teen Spirit with a group of middle-aged men. |