Music has impacted students for generations. Students have always found a way to allow music to influence their day-to-day lives. For one student in particular, music is her life. Sophomore Shannon Sebastian has her hand in all aspects of the school music program. From playing piano for the choir to viola for the orchestra. In just two years of high school, she has established a name for herself as a musician and a composer, performing at talent shows with her compositions.
Seeing Shannon’s love for music, her parents thought it would be beneficial to get her some type of musical lessons.
“My parents pushed me to do piano. They randomly asked me if I wanted to take piano lessons, and I said yes. I was six at this at the time and I’ve continued taking piano lessons, progressing to where I am now in life,” Sebastian said.
Shannon naturally progressed in her lessons and decided to take a crack at composing her own pieces.
“When I start off writing a song, I try and figure out the melody because I feel like the melody is the part that grasps people’s attention. First, I try and make it catchy, then I try to make something that builds up to that melody. I want it to sound cool. It’s all built on blocks and I even sneak in a key change or two,” Sebastian said.
Of course, writing a song is easier said than done.
“Oh, writer’s block it sucks. What I usually end up doing is just writing little songs, or I just end up singing covers. They’re all usually really short,” Sebastian said.
With young composers and students having access to social media, it has become easier for Shannon to share her talents with people beyond the school walls.
(Isaac Fulks)
“I have an Instagram page with all my music things, and most of the things I make are really short. Obviously, as a high schooler, I don’t wanna get too burnt out. So I like to take a little break and write little tunes to post,” Sebastian said.
While Shannon tries to stay impartial with her music, everyone always has a favorite child, or in her case, a favorite piece of music.
“My favorite piece that I’ve written is probably the song that I wrote last year for our Christmas show, in choir freshman year. It’s called ‘That Christmas Kid Feeling’. I enjoyed writing it because I got to perform this in front of so many other people. I don’t perform songs that I write that often, so getting to do that was pretty special. The song came from a special place for me because it talked about how Christmas isn’t the same when you’re grown up. When you’re a kid, it’s all magical, but then when you grow up, and it’s kind of just Christmas,” Sebastian said.
From start to finish, Shannon is proud of her work and loves sharing her gift with others. “My favorite part about performing in front of everybody is getting to share what I worked on. I’ve put in all this effort, hard work, and time, and now I get to show it to everyone and hopefully influence them as much as music has influenced me,” Sebastian said.
