Music has become the most important thing in my life.
Before I started playing music, I spent a lot of my spare time watching television or playing video games. I was a very shy person. My mother started having me take piano lessons and I cant say I especially enjoyed practicing. Occasionally Id play a little, and then call upstairs to my mom to ask her how long Id been practicing. She would tell me Id only been at it for about 4 minutes. My piano teacher would play the left hand parts for me, and as a result it took longer for me to learn how to play using both hands at the same time. My skills as a musician early on were unpolished.
That all changed when my mom introduced me to the Paul Green School of Rock Music in Downingtown. As soon as I started taking lessons there I got exponentially better at playing music, and I was introduced to the music of the bands I now love. I was also introduced to performance-based instruction which made the lessons more fun and gave me something to really look forward to each week. I soon found that I could finally play with both hands within a few weeks of taking lessons at Rock School. I was learning material that progressively got harder and harder to learn. I wanted to prove myself more than anything, so I worked as hard as I could. I did a few shows, made more friends, and I grew more confident as time passed. I was overcoming my shyness and I was not afraid to play on stage. Performing was becoming second nature to me.
In early 2007 my dad took me to see the band Project/Object, a band that plays the music of Frank Zappa and includes some former members of Zappas band, The Mothers of Invention. The keyboardist for the band was my old piano teacher from Rock School, the first one I had when Id joined the School of Rock. Id never really listened to any of Frank Zappas music prior to that night. I was thoroughly amazed and blown away by his complicated and eclectic music. It was by far the most impressive music Id ever heard. After the show was over my old teacher came over and told me he was coming back to Downingtown to direct one last show. He planned to do a Frank Zappa show. He asked me if I wanted to be in the show and told me that he would put me in it if I said yes. My jaw dropped in disbelief. I was amazed that he thought that I could handle the material. I said I would do it, thanked him, and then went home, wondering if I was up to the difficult challenge.
Soon thereafter rehearsals started. The show was filled with the very best students at the Downingtown school. I wanted so badly to show that I could be just as good as they were if I tried, so I started practicing all the time. Id wake up at 5:00 in the morning and practice nonstop before having to get ready to go to school. Id play songs 5, 6, or 7 times in a row every time I practiced just to make sure I had them absolutely right. The songs I was given to learn were the hardest Id ever had to play. I learned them as quickly as possible and before I knew it Id pushed myself to a whole new level. I rose up to the challenge and played my songs to near perfection in the show, and I became a much better musician because of it. Over a period of 6 years and over 100 performances, I was exposed to many new genres of music and playing styles, and while my musical skills grew and expanded, I found that I had also become more social and I had made a lot of friends. Since then Ive been given the opportunity to play songs by bands who compose very complicated music, such as Genesis, Yes, Deep Purple, and many more difficult songs. I even started to play the guitar, and much more recently to sing.
In the beginning playing on stage used to frighten me and I would sweat profusely. I was just someone standing in the background, hiding behind a keyboard and blending in as best I could. Now I get the chance to learn truly great and difficult music, play on stage in front of hundreds and sometimes thousands of people, and go play gigs at first-class venues like The Trocadero and The Electric Factory. Im no longer afraid to perform. In my most recent concert, I was placed out front to sing lead vocals. With lots of practice, and lots of encouragement from my teachers, parents and friends, I have more self confidence now than ever before.
I honestly dont know what Id do without music. Maybe its more accurate for me to say: Music has become one of the most important things in my life.
Ive been lucky enough to have the opportunity to earn a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, attend camps to create short films and video games, attend a fishing camp in the Canadian wilderness, and visit Europe extensively, including my familys ancestral homeland of Ireland. As much as I have enjoyed all of these things, nothing else in my life as affected me as positively as music has.
I would love to have the opportunity to study music in college, and I really believe that an education in music would prepare me for the happiest life I could possibly imagine.
_ Downingtown School of Rock
_ Rock & Roll After School
