Musical Autobiography

Musical Autobiography

Music can go back way when I was four. I grew up around an Egyptian culture and all the music I would hear was written by famous Egyptian people. The tone of the music was fast with rhythm. It was the kind of music which you can belly dance to. It was a tradition to have fun while listening to the song by clapping or dancing. It was one of my favorite customs to do with family and relatives. When relatives would come over we would party so load that the police would come and warn us to be quit. My earliest music connection was very different and, in my opinion, more cultural than others.

In fourth grade was when I started joining clubs. I joined this club were they perform musicals for the school. They assigned instruments to everybody and I chose to play the ukulele. I had a great time at practices with our teacher Mr. Thorten. He was born in Hawaii and was a professional surfer. So I was taught by the best of the best. Mr. Thorten had us practice in groups were I met this girl that helped me out because she was already a skilled player. The problem was she was three years older than me, which made me cry on the inside when I found out. We performed in Christmas and Easter. So I had a blast in the end.

When middle school came around, all students needed to select an elective. I didn't want to learn a new language, or draw art. I had already loved music so I decided that I will join the school band. They were short on guitarists and I helped out by buying a guitar and joining band. It was hard at first how I had to press the strings really hard for it to sound nice. After a while, my fingers had formed calluses on them so it was easy to play the guitar. As time progressed I learned to read music, play chords, and perform a solo. Band was my favorite class of the day. We would perform for the school on assemblies, go to elementary school tours, and compete in competitions. In eighth grade we won first place in the county. I even had a good relationship with the instructor, Mr. Shutza. He had me play in his personal band and we would perform in galas. Mr. Shutza would later have me teach in his music school after I graduated middle school. My middle school experience was astounding and memorable.