Tess is a 13 year old music lover who already knows how to play the piano and the hammered dulcimer. She's adding voice and guitar to her repetoire, learning to harmonize with others in the process.
I’m taking Pop Choir Music and Intro to Acoustic Guitar. I’m interested in music, but I don’t think I want to pursue a career in it; it’s more like a hobby to me. But I do really enjoy it. I’ve played piano since I was five years old and I just started playing hammered dulcimer last year. It’s this wooden instrument that has strings across it and you hit the strings with hammers. It sounds very cool. It’s quite hard to play. I haven’t really done much singing and I wanted to try it, so that’s why I took these courses. So far I’ve learned how to sing different parts with other people and how to do harmonies. I really enjoy working with other people who are also interested in the same things, like singing. In Acoustic Guitar we haven’t gotten to the songwriting part yet, but I’m really looking forward to it. It’s been very cool learning how to play the guitar and adding another instrument to my repertoire.
I came to EXPLO because I want to become a better singer and I want to learn how to play the guitar and write songs. But I also just want to have fun and make friends. The classes have definitely been challenging because I don’t have very much experience with singing and I have no experience with guitar, so learning both of those things has been challenging, but it has also been a lot of fun. Specifically, with the harmonies in the Pop Choir Music, it was hard to get those exactly right and it took me a lot of tries. There is one part that is particularly hard where I’m the only one singing in the choir. With guitar it’s hard to find the different chords, you have to press really hard so you need finger strength, I guess.
Pop Choir Music also performs a lot. I love to perform. I just like the idea of showing your skill to a bunch of people and engaging them and seeing them enjoy it. I’m sometimes nervous, but mostly excited. I’m looking forward to performing at the Community Meeting on Thursday, where we will be performing “Hallelujah.”
Fidelia Randmäe