Instruments: Who knows I can play

I started playing guitar when I was 9 years old. My first guitar was a gift for my birthday from my father, it was my favorite color, pink. 

My cousin used to teach me the basics. She taught me 4 different chords only and with that I was so happy already. When I was on grade 5 there was a perfomance task where we must show our talents. Playing Guitar was the first thing that comes to my mind. It was the first time that I'm showing off this side of me. I was really nervous and shy to sing and play in front of my classmates and teacher but I did it. 

I continued to improve my musical skills, and when I was a junior in high school, I tried out for the SPA (Special Programme in the Arts) curriculum. Media Arts, Creative Writing, Visual Arts, Theatre, Dance, and Music are the six divisions of SPA. Fortunately, out of everyone who tried out for Music, I placed 10th overall. For four years (grades 7 through 10), I pursued music. And this is when I started to learn the ukulele. We also took up the role of the school choir. We all played instruments together. Our first performance was the SPA students' final performance on March 27, 2019. 

I've never performed in front of so many people before. I can confidently state that it was a memorable occasion. Sadly, the pandemic prevented us from performing in the years that followed, but we kept learning and playing virtually. 

Our music instructor chose four students in grade 10 to represent the school at the Division Festival of Talents in 2021. Our teacher urged us not to feel under pressure and to just have fun even though we hadn't had enough training to participate in this kind of events when we were chosen. The good news is that our placement was 9.

But because of the new environment I was in, my concentration was centred on adapting, and I was too nervous to show my ability to play the guitar and ukulele to my classmates when I started senior high school.