Music

My parents are both very musical, and as children my sister and I were encouraged (required) to take piano lessons. I enjoyed playing piano, but hated practicing. After 6 years behind the keyboard, I had had enough. I quit.

The percussion chamber

I was still encouraged (again, required) to take a musical instrument, and having given up piano, I had to come up with a new instrument. Drums seemed like the most rebelious choice, so I asked to take drum lessons. My parents refused, probably for good reason. The second most rebellious instrument I could think of was the electric guitar, so I chose that next. My father plays acoustic guitar and happily agreed. My mother agreed on the condition that I would never play 'Smoke on the Water' – it was the first song my father taught me when we got the guitar.

Entering high school I was cut from the soccer team, so I stayed home that summer and practiced my guitar. It was probably for the best. Being in a new environment, I was eager to be known for something so I started a band with some classmates. We were far from good, but band practice was so much fun. Some days are bad days. When you're in high school, many more days are bad days. But no matter what happened during school, when I got home and strapped on the guitar I was in another world.

The band started recording digital music with a computer program that would allow you to lay out multiple tracks, edit them, and mix them up. I got really into that. I would listen to my favorite albums in headphones and try to pick out all of the different instruments. It's amazing how you can find hidden or subtle touches in music when you listen intently. I got pretty good at laying out tracks. We pooled lunch money to buy microphones and a mixing board. We researched microphone placement for drums and amplifiers. By the time we were juniors we had recorded enough (original) material for an album which we released and sold around school on burned CDs. That was pretty cool. The highlight of my high school musical career, though, was playing the rock opera musical that the school put on in my junior year. I had a guitar solo which I performed on stage, in costume.

After graduation the band dissolved and went off to different colleges. Nearing the end of my freshman year, I was dying to play music with other people. The drummer from high school, a few other friends, and myself got together just to jam to some Led Zepplin covers. When we got tired of playing covers, someone would make up a chord progression and the others would improvise over it. After a few weeks of this we decided to form a band and named ourselves Paragon – after the merriam-webster.com word of the day.

I played with Paragon throughout college. We played venues all over Michigan and Chicago for 3 years. We were managed by one of the member's father, who booked us everywhere. Some weekends we would play Thursday, Friday and Saturday. In July 2006 we traveled down to Kentucky to record an album. Recording professionally, although very stressful at times, is so much fun. Those 2 weeks were some of the best times I have had. The album was self-produced and between friends and fans we sold enough copies to easily cover the cost. It is still available on iTunes – Paragon “Saladays”.

Now I mostly record music by myself for fun. I haven't been in a band for a little while, but this is just a temporary respite. Standing on stage with blinding hot lights in front of you, 1,000 watts behind and a heavy guitar hanging off your shoulder is one of the greatest feelings in the world – after the nervousness wears off.