Music is a worldwide phenomenon of human culture and history, made into sound and vibrations that bring a myriad of emotions into our hearts. With such a diverse and amazing history, it is no wonder that humans have experimented with different times, beats, and sounds to evoke profound feelings that can not truly be described. Music is multifaceted in a way that can dwarf other artistic expressions, bypassing our experiences to show anyone its emotions. In this personal statement, I’ll let you know how music shaped my life, and how I believe it could shape everyone else’s in a way that unites us.
When I was seven, still living in California, my parents got me my first trumpet. I was so excited, seeing the marching bands in parades and halftime shows and hearing the boisterous sound of the trumpets playing. For a few weeks, I was really invested, pouring my heart out into learning about music. When my parents saw this, they knew that getting me into a class would be a great idea. I was then soon quickly enrolled at a local beginner’s music class outside of my school. I went there once a week with about fifteen other kids, learning how to play our instruments, as well as reading music and how to count beats. I was having so much fun for about a year or so, until we moved to Oregon for a better, safer life.
Once I got into middle school, I was able to join the beginning school band. Every school day, I would spend an hour with my music teacher, helping us learn our instruments, as well as playing full songs. We had two concerts per year, before winter break and before the end of the school year, in spring. With my previous experience, it was pretty easy for me, so I was able to focus my learning onto harder material, getting ready for the high school band and its challenges.
When I was in middle school, I always looked up to the high school band. They had one march in a parade every year, and it was always followed by fire trucks, floats, and police cars, their horns blazing. Now, as a freshman, I was there. I couldn’t imagine how many things we did. We did that parade and the two concerts, yes, but we also did pep band for football and basketball, as well as an orchestral band later in the year.
My freshman year, we won in State Band for 1A/2A. I was thrilled, as my prowess allowed me to be first trumpet among the seniors and juniors, which made me feel like an integral part of the band. My sophomore year, my band director asked me to play euphonium since it was a needed part at the time. I decided to pick it up, and it is now my main instrument of choice. We got third in state that year, and my junior year, we got fourth. I feel like we’re constantly challenged, and I’m looking forward to qualifiers next month.
I feel like euphoniums are an underrated instrument. They blend very well in an ensemble, as well as being a flexible, all-rounder type of instrument. Being a tenor voice, they have the best of both a lower and higher tone that I believe is underappreciated. It was even named euphonium because it loosely translates to the Ancient Greek word for “well-sounding.” I hope that when I go to do my audition and interview, you can tell what I mean. I have been mostly a lone instrument until recently, when two freshman euphoniums came up. I have been getting them prepared for qualifiers, helping to teach what I can to them before I eventually leave in the summer.
As you’ve gotten an idea on how my past history with music has gone, I can chime in on my out-of-school studies. For the past four years, I have been creating music digitally with varying levels of success. I got FL Studio two years ago, but before that I used a free online resource called Soundtrap. Even now, I’m still learning more and more about digital music composition as I dive deeper into the software. I feel like through my musical creations, I tend to learn a lot more in music theory than most of my peers that just do band in-school. This enrichment has given me a fondness in music that only a few stand by.
Even now, I have been slowly experimenting with irregular time signatures like 11/8 and 15/8. I feel like these underutilized time signatures can be interpreted with way more expression than most, set and symmetrical time signatures. They can split in such different ways, and each way could lead to another, giving me a feeling of “Eureka!” when I make a great idea on how the rest of the song should play out. This example of freedom of expression is what makes making music to me a core expression of myself.
Another one of my out-of-school studies, despite being started in school, is learning piano. We have a large keyboard where I live, so I use it to brush up on my skills or to learn a song that I have been wanting to learn for a while. I find this skill to be good for me because I have a small MIDI keyboard that makes it easier for me to write music. Knowing how to play a little piano in general is a great idea, as it can be used to listen to specific chords that might be harder to do with a group of people playing various instruments.
With these extra skills, I have been able to grow not only as a musician but also as a person. Being able to be in a group of like minded people, sharing information about the thing you love to do makes it easy to work together towards a common goal. Everyone seems to get together well in the band, and I appreciate the space that it creates.
In my future, I want to continue to grow musically by composing more music in different styles as well as uploading my music more for the world to hear. I wish to share my feelings through music and this continued exploration of my skills will help me grow as a musician and as a person. Once I get proficient enough, I could also teach others in music. Putting my passions together would allow me to make a bigger difference in my community. I hope that in the future I would be able to possibly create video game music for a small indie game or just as a side project. Video games shape my style heavily and I can converge these together in order to create beautiful things for my entire life.
I’m looking forward to being able to grow not only as a performer of music but also as a composer of it.