Music

Through my life, I have learned ten instruments which are: Clarinet, Piano, Peruvian “cajón,” violin, recorder, xylophone, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, alto saxophone, steel pan, and I have been in my school choir. Yes, I am not the best in each instrument, but if you give them to me, I can at least play the “Ode to Joy” in every instrument.

Everything started when I saw my grandfather playing a music piece in the piano when I was 6, and it has been more than five years, and no one knows that songs name. I got interested in the piano, and my mother put me in some piano classes there I learned to play some songs like “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “Ode to Joy,” and lots of that classical music for kids. In that same year, my other grandfather bought me a Peruvian “cajón” a percussion instrument and that teacher taught me some rhythmic patterns. When I was in first grade, my classroom taught us how to play the recorder. This type of music influences me to listen to some classic songs from Verdi. So my favorite “band” at that time was the three tenors with José Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti.

   When I move to live in Cuba around when I was 7 years old in my music class they teach us some basic music pieces in the xylophone and at the end of the school year we had to be at a music concert that the school planned and we played that instrument and sang some songs the teachers created. In the later years we also played the recorder but when I was ten my mother told me to go to the school choir, and I got accepted I prepared myself to sing various songs. I don’t remember the names, but I did remember that one part of a song was in French and even we recorder to make a disk which I don’t know how it ended because I was young. I don’t remember that much, but I remember that I practice a lot and in the day of the presentation I got a fever, so I didn’t make it. A year later the music teacher gave us to play the Steel Pan which is like an African drum that a specific part of the drum had a different note, I learned basic songs and rhythms. I also remember having piano classes and play “For Elise” by Beethoven and “The Entrainment” in the US embassy and sang in the Swedish Embassy “Santa Lucía.” In Cuba, because there was not too much internet I instead of hearing the three tenors I hear more salsa music with musicians like Gente de Zona, Pitbull, Marc Antoni, etc.

   When I came back to Peru when I was 13 and in my music class they teach me how to play the Clarinet, in fact, because with history with music I learned some of them by ear which means that you play a song in an instrument by having an idea of how it sounds and not seeing the notes. Which make me be part of the IB Schools Band Festival 2016 and play next to the composer Robert W. Smith a famous American composer a song called "Tempest." Then next year I learn to play the Violin, and I play various classical thing but also more modern musicals pieces like John Williams “Imperial March” or Coldplay “Viva la Vida.” The next year I wanted to go back but now in the Saxophone. I struggle but I manage to at least learn the basic of it the only problems was that we needed in the school band to sound more harmonious a Clarinet so I decided to go back at Clarinet. In that year I went to a school festival called ADCA, and I play in the festival of the IB School Band 2018, but this time it was going to be with the composer Paul A. Murtha.

Then I stop being in the school band and learn by myself in the piano. I learn a song like “Cielito Lindo,” The Godfather theme song, and the song that my grandfather play in the piano, and more modern song that was on the radio. In the middle of being in Cuba, I came back for a couple of months to Peru and played the electric guitar the first song that I play was from AC/DC “Back in Black.” I didn’t give importance and later when I came back around when I was 14 in 2017 my uncle make a band and make me join me in. It was a family band which means that every member was a cousin. I was the lead guitar and learn new techniques and songs. I didn’t care too much, but I was the leader, so I had to take care of everyone I started to listen to bands and learn by myself new riffs and chords until learn about the best band of all times The Beatles. John, Paul, George, and Ringo were my inspiration, and so, in the end, we played in the Hard Rock Cafe “Twist and Shout” The Beatles’ version. Then next year in we played in the Magdalena “Domos” two songs “Shook Me All Night Long” and “T.N.T” both from AC/DC. After that year we played “Revolution Radio” by Green Day, and I decided to leave the band. In that year I learn now with a teacher first some acoustic guitar techniques and chords, and then I move for the electric guitar, and it was easier to play, and I understand more of music. In that same year, I went and played with my brother a Beatles Medley in a charity event for the “Hospital del niño” which is a hospital in Peru for kids. As in 2019 with 15 years of age now I enjoy playing with my electric guitar and ready to do concerts but now for my family but who knows in the near future I will perform in a big concert again.