| Performing Background |
| I can honestly say that I've been into performing my whole life. I actually started performing on stage at age 3 as a tap dancer. I danced after that for 8 years, but never really excelled at it or anything. It was fun, though. My acting experience is limited to school plays. I was in several elementary school plays, one of which I played the lead. I didn't pick that love up again until high school (I like to think that during middle school I wasn't retarded...but let's not kid ourselves.) I was in four high school plays, which is nothing to sneeze at. I sang in one of them. I always felt comfortable and at home on stage, performing...more than I did anywhere else. My musical background started at age 6, when my mother decided that I should take piano lessons. I hated them. I would cry and beg my mom to let me quit, but she didn't. Years passed after that...and I soon began to love the piano. It's funny how growing older makes you appreciate what you hated to put the work into the first time around. I stopped taking piano lessons at age 13...and only picked them back up a few years ago, only to quit again. I didn't do well with taking lessons. I say it's because I haven't found the right teacher...but the case could very well be that I'm not the right student. I still love the piano; it's where I learned music and where I relate everything musical I come across. But I still have regrets about not taking it to the next level. We'll see what college brings. I was in band from 5th grade to 8th grade. I played the clarinet. I hated it. And I really hated band. I think my problem with being able to play in a band stems from this. More about that problem later on. It wasn't until I was a sophomore in high school that I really started becoming interested in the guitar. My brother and I received an Epiphone electric for Christmas, and he started taking lessons. The summer after my junior year of high school was when I got around to taking lessons (like I said...lessons and me don't mix well). I took about six or seven lessons and then quit. I had learned a lot in those lessons, though, because I had all that music knowledge from piano. I've actually learned more and grown a better musician by experimenting on the guitar by myself. I worked at it...and bought my own acoustic Fender (Rosie). A few short months after that, I wrote my first song, "Where Do I Go?" I then had my vocals to tame. I had been in a few choirs and church specials but I'd never really taken voice lessons. I joined the high school choir as a junior, which was fun. I went to solo and ensemble and all of this prepared me for my next step. At the beginning of my senior year, I auditioned and was accepted in the MSU High School Women's Treble Ensemble. That's a big name for a bunch of high school girls with awesome talent and a wonderful sound. We were directed by Mary Alice Stollak, one of the top ten choir conductors in the world. Or something like that. Anyway, she's awesome. It was the coolest thing, and it's amazing to me how much it improved my voice. So up until this point, I had been writing my own music, just not really sharing it with the rest of the world. I had tried to form a few bands after that, but none of them took off (with me in it, anyway) because I quit both of them. One of my friends told me I was too good for a band, but it's the other way around. Anyone can learn to do something and get good at it on their own, but to pool talents to make something great is a much larger acheivement than what I do. I sometimes wish I was enough of a musician to be in a band. Maybe down the road, I'll finally grow up and be able to. My first real performance outside of church was that of high school graduation. I played "Where Do I Go?" in front of about 500 people for my first performance. (I've been called crazy many times. Don't feel like you need to hold back.) It went awesome, and I found that playing a song can make you popular. It's funny. The moment I left high school, suddenly people that I hadn't talked to in years were coming up and striking up conversations with me. People are crazy. Anywho...I then performed an actual set at my open house, and my first real concert was opening for my friends Casie and Elizabeth at the Net Cafe in Lake Odessa. And that's pretty much where I am now. I plan on acting, singing, and playing instruments in college...maybe I'll even major in music. We'll see what God has in store for me. |