All That Music Has Taught Me

From the moment I could grasp the idea of having likes and dislikes, I have loved music. Music is just another form of communication that can get points across even better than having a regular conversation and that is what I love most about it. Through my years of wanting to pursue music as a career, it has taught me to have patience, to believe in myself, to be more out there and confident, and it has also taught me that hard work pays off.

If you have ever tried to learn an instrument, whether that is guitar or flute, you know that it takes a lot of time and patience. I have run into numerous roadblocks in my journey of learning guitar and piano which set me back a tremendous amount of time. When I tried to play one of the instruments, I would mess up once and get frustrated. This would go on for weeks at a time and I would end up barely playing at all. Through those times, I constantly felt stuck and too discouraged to continue. Thankfully, I pushed through and as soon as I began to have patience and accept the mess ups, my skill level rocketed. I was able to play chords and songs I wasn't even close to playing before.

Patience ties into having to believe in myself. I stayed discouraged for so long and had no faith in myself that I would ever be able to get over the speed bumps that I had faced. I would play the same three chords over and over again because I didn't believe I could learn any of the more difficult ones. I knew that if I wanted to pursue music, I had to get through the hours of practicing daily and begin to truly believe in myself. Even pretending as if I believed in myself led to the thought becoming true and being able to be more skilled at the instruments.

Ever since I started middle school, my self-confidence plummeted. I constantly struggled with wondering what other people were thinking about me which led to many missed opportunities, music related or not. Wanting to pursue music as a career is impossible if you're not confident enough to put yourself and your work out there, and that was one of my biggest issues. It was to the point where I could barely even touch an instrument with other people around, let alone sing in front of them. I've begun to work up my self-confidence, slowly but surely. I ended up sending in an audition for American Idol which was something a year ago, I wouldn't have even dreamed of. Of course, I got rejected, but it still showed that I was finally starting to come out of my shell and show people my work.

I was lucky enough to have the chance to talk to Spencer Sutherland about my dreams and what I wanted to do with music. He told me "Work harder than hard," and that "it's all worth it," which has stuck with me. The music industry is one big hustle, and I've only seen the tip of the iceberg. There's always something you could be doing better or something you could be doing differently. As Sutherland said, you have to work harder than hard on your music to get what you're striving for.

Music is like my second language. It has taught me to express my feelings in a poetic, musical way, and not just in words. It has also taught me how to be patient with myself, to believe in myself, to be confident, and to work hard. Music will always be a part of my life and I know I'm destined to learn even more from it.