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Harmonious Prosperity:

Examples of Instrumental and Musical Benefits

By Justin Gillen

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for a Degree in Writing

Journalism and Freelance

Thesis Advisor: Prof. John Briggs

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Abstract

  This collection of anecdotes and research shows the psychological and life enjoyment

benefits that anyone can gain by learning and playing a musical instrument. It includes the

author’s personal experiences with learning an instrument, along with four interviews with

musicians of differing experience levels, musical styles, and ways that playing music has helped

their lives. The interviews range from a guitar teacher that’s been playing for 25 plus years to a

musician that spent six years touring. This thesis also examines the ability of music to soothe and

calm, as well ass its potential power to change a person’s life by eliciting commitment, devotion,

and discipline.

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Table of Contents

Preamble……………………………………………………………………………………4

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………...5

Nathan Petrella……………………………………………………………………………..18

Gabe Sipson…………………………………………………………………………………23

Joshua Guerraz……………………………………………………………………………..28

Jason Grant…………………………………………………………………………………34

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………40

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Preamble

There are many musicians in today’s world and all of them have personal reasons for why

they play their instruments. Some play instruments to start a hobby, impress friends, join bands,

get jobs playing music professionally, etc. When the chosen instrument is studied and the player

practices with determination, it’s common for the musician to experience psychological and life

enjoyment benefits that can be surprising for many people that don’t realize this.

In this work, the reader will learn about the power of music and how playing an

instrument can easily progress from a hobby that just kills time, to a life goal and aspiration. The

reader will also learn many of the benefits of playing music as the work includes the author’s

own personal experiences and a series of interviews with musicians ranging from a guitar teacher

that’s been playing for 25-plus years to a musician that spent six years touring in a rock band.

These interviews are set up as profiles of the musicians and show their experience levels,

personal influences, and how playing music was not just a hobby, but something that they could

rely on throughout their lives.

This piece is meant to inspire and influence current musicians, beginning musicians, and

people who have never paid any thought into playing an instrument before to expand upon or

start up the craft. If the reader never thought to try and learn an instrument before, hopefully after

reading a number of authentic experiences that these musicians shaped their musical life with,

the reader will be inspired to do the same and reap some of the benefits themselves.

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Introduction

Music is the art of sound. It has no chemical makeup, no physical body: it floats through

the air the way thunder travels after lightning strikes. Though humans cannot physically see it or

feel it, it has the power to release unbelievable emotions in the human mind and body. Music can

alter a person’s emotions the same way that taking a drug could, yet have no negative effects. It

can make you sad, jubilant, and everything in between. After one of the worst days of your life,

you can still find happiness and relief in that favorite song or that melody you adore.

Though these observations apply to just about everyone, one of the more amazing things

about music is that it is completely personal. Have you ever had a person in front of you

expressing feelings about how much they loved a song you couldn’t stand? Something that

sounds like nails on a chalkboard to you can be someone else’s ecstasy. It is the old “one man’s

junk is another man’s treasure” effect. It proves that though large majorities of people share a

love for music, the specific feelings are always completely personal to that person.

A lot of people who love to listen to music are the same people that either don’t have

interest in playing it, or don’t have the confidence to try to. What these people may not realize

about music is that playing it can amplify that good feeling they love from listening. It might be

something that they can only imagine, but it’s true when it’s said that they will never truly

understand how building skills on an instrument comparing to listening to instruments being

played can have very different effects on the benefits music can offer.

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The benefits of playing an instrument are something that I have experienced personally,

and I remember how it all started. I was only 12 years old and attended a Northeast Connecticut

school called Pomfret Community School when I experienced my first interest in what is now

my primary instrument: the guitar. There wasn’t much to do in Pomfret, the town where I was

born and a city with a population of more cows than people. Since boredom seemed to take its

toll on the kids in Pomfret, many kids took up hobbies to fill the gaps. At my graduation from

Pomfret Community School, a guitar player from my graduating class named Pat played Eric

Clapton’s “Crossroads” in front of everyone in a gymnasium. There were over 100 people

paying their full and undivided attention to him. During the time he played that song, I noticed

how impressed everyone was with him.

Though I was impressed too, I didn’t feel good inside. I immediately identified it with

jealousy. I thought to myself, “How is that possible?” He was just as old as I was, and I had not

even come close to the talent he had in guitar with anything in my life. I had played sports and

tried my hand in other hobbies, but nothing I had done measured up to how well my classmate

played the guitar that night. If it sounded good to everyone else, it sounded phenomenal to me.

I remember vividly the drive home with my parents. Everyone was proud of me for

graduating, but I hardly noticed because all I could think of was playing guitar. I had a

conversation with them about what exactly was on my mind and my dad reminded me that my

brother had an old guitar that he didn’t play anymore. It was a Fender Stratocaster, which I later

found out is one of the best guitars you could buy. Though it was a cheap version of one, I knew

that I was in better shape than most beginning guitarists. I was excited, until I found out it had no

strings.

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The next day my dad and I drove to a store called “guitar center” and got a pair of strings.

I knew nothing of purchasing equipment, picks, strings, etc. for guitars, but the employee at the

counter coached my father and me through it. When I got home, I was so excited to get started

on my new hobby that I ran straight to the guitar and started putting them on. It took very little

time to realize that I put them on completely wrong when I started to tighten one of the thinnest

strings and it snapped off in my face. I wanted to cry, but I pressed on and played what I could

on the remaining five strings.

Needless to say my introduction to the guitar was a little less than friendly and I made

more mistakes than actual music in my first week of playing, but I eventually worked it out. I

taught myself how to play for a full year and it was as exciting as I had hoped it to be. For the

first two weeks of playing, my talent seemed to double every time I picked up the guitar. I

became obsessed with blues music and guitarists of other genres while constantly listening to

music with everything I did from exercising to doing homework. I found that it made everything

more soothing and filled gaps I never knew were empty.

As time went on, I went through these frustrating portions of time where I felt like I could

not get any better. I called them plateaus. I hated them so much because I was in such a rush to

get better. I wanted to sound like the guitarists I listened to every day. I wanted to sound like

guys like Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan and I had no time wait. I became so obsessed

with getting better that during a lot of these plateaus; I had trouble looking at my guitar because

it discouraged me and I lost a lot of my momentum. Guitar became a double-edged sword to me,

but it was only because I was impatient.

With enough time and persistence, I realized how important patience was to learning and

instrument and how impatient a person I was. This did not just apply to my struggle with

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learning the guitar, but it applied to a lot of things in my life. I was impatient in waiting rooms,

impatient for dinner, and just impatient about life in general. After about three or four plateaus in

teaching myself the instrument, I became more familiar with the feeling of not getting better

every day. Guitar taught me something that important at a very early age and from that

realization, I truly believe I changed myself for the better. Though some days were more

frustrating than others, it didn’t get to me anymore. My bad habit of rushing just became

something I thought about as immature, and I left it behind. This was true to the point where it

even made me drive my car slower. I was able to completely calm myself down and give myself

more time to think and process things I would always rush.

Learning an instrument not only taught me how to handle patience better, but I also

gained a lot of confidence from it. The better I got at guitar, the better I felt about myself. It was

a confidence I didn’t find in things like sports or games; it was something that I could fall back

on when I was sad, happy, bored, etc. I quickly found myself having trouble remembering my

life before picking up an instrument because I related everything to it.

About a year into high school, I decided to take guitar lessons. I always liked to be able to

tell people that I was self-taught. There was this strange sense of pride I got out of it, but I was

willing to let go of my pride when I tried to approach music theory. It was equivalent to learning

a different language and I knew right away I wasn’t going to be able to teach myself. I needed to

be taught. It defined everything I hated about learning any subject in school. It took all the fun

out of playing because it became more like a study and as a young immature player, all I wanted

to do was jam like all my favorite musicians did. However, I found within my second year of

playing that learning songs I heard on the radio or listened to on my IPod was not getting me any

better and I knew I needed to make a change.

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I was 14 when I met Josh Guerraz. He was a full time guitar teacher at a store in

Southbridge, Massachusetts called Gordon LaSalle’s Music. It is not an understatement to say

that I would not be the musician I am today without his help. He taught me things in a way

where I could understand them. Whatever techniques that theory books weren’t able to express

to me, he easily laid out and my skills on the instrument took off like I had always wanted them

to. We had weekly lessons and each week I dove deeper and deeper into the instrument learning

how to play scales I never knew existed, chords I had never heard before, and the theory of

writing and conducting music. I was extremely deep into the learning process and that third year

turned out to be one of the best guitar years I have ever had.

During my fourth year of playing I was asked to join a band with a few English teachers

from my high school. They were into folk and bluegrass music. It wasn’t exactly my favorite

music to play, but I knew my chords and was able to play in what I would call my first band. The

whole day leading up to this jam session, I sat in four of what felt like the longest classes of my

life tapping my feet because of how excited I was to play. When the time finally came, I walked

into the room where we were going to play and saw someone I did not expect to. Pat, the same

classmate that played at my middle school graduation and student that inspired me so much that I

couldn’t wait to play, was sitting in the room warming up on an acoustic guitar. He looked at me

holding my guitar case and said, “I never knew you played.” It was ironic to say the least, but I

was intrigued and intimidated at the same time. He was kind of like a mentor I had, except I

never talked to him about guitar. Now I had a chance to play with him. The jam session went

well and I still knew that he was miles ahead of me in skill when it was over. I still felt a bit

jealous of him.

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As we all were walking out of the room, Pat stopped me to say, “You hold a good rhythm

Justin, you did really good in there, it was a lot more than I expected.” I acknowledged the

comment like it meant a lot to me and thanked him, but he really had no idea how amazing that

made me feel. He was better than me, a lot better, and we both knew it. Yet, I did good enough to

earn a compliment. This was the first time my hard work seemed to pay off for me. When I went

home, I got this sense of what I can only refer to as “musical adrenaline.” I vividly remember

that I got home at around 6 p.m. and played all the way until 2 a.m. My dedication, my interest,

and my drive in the instrument were at an all-time high.

It was moments like that where I realized how important this instrument really was to me.

I never devoted myself into something so deep before. Nothing I could learn in history, math, or

science class stole my interest like guitar could. I identified it with having an addiction, but it

was an addiction that people applauded you for. To me, it was like having people pat you on the

back for being a heroin addict. It made me feel incredible about myself.

As I fell asleep that night, I started to ponder a couple thoughts. I was in my junior year

of high school by this point. It was just about the time where teenagers need to seriously think

about applying to colleges and your parents and teachers start to ride you about what you’re

going to do with your life. I really had no idea what I wanted to do. I started to weigh out my

options and I came up with two things: video game tester and astronaut. As funny as that sounds,

I knew that neither was realistic for me and what I was talented in. I wanted to play guitar

because it was all I cared about. I wanted to be happy in my life and do something that made me

happy. It all made sense in that instant and I was on a mission to perform music. I would have

dropped out of school and drove my car to some famous music city to try and make it big if it

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were not for my parents. They had their heart set on me going to college and being able to

support myself. I figured I would break even, and I decided to go to school for music.

My guitar teacher made a good amount of money and I had no problem having a job like

his for my profession. I just wanted to do something with guitar. In the next lesson, I asked him

how he made this happen. He got me familiar with Western Connecticut State University

(WCSU): the school that he went to in his studies. He explained that they had a phenomenal

music program, but it was competitive, so you had to be good to get in. The challenge he

presented enticed me. I liked that it was going to be hard. The harder I worked, the better I got at

the instrument, which was my ultimate goal anyways. I set my sights on WCSU and applied

when it was time.

Months passed until I found out I got accepted into the school. This was great, but it was

more bittersweet. It was the first step and obviously an important one, but there was still so much

more work to do after this. Now that I was in, I could apply to audition for the music program.

My guitar teacher went out of his way to help me and got the audition specifications. The paper

he handed me might as well have been a kick in the stomach. As I looked over it, I realized how

much work I really did have ahead of me. At this point, I had close to two months to complete

the specifications for the audition and it was time to get started.

There were many things on the list I felt comfortable with. I had very good ears and a

pretty good grasp on the instrument so I had no problem with things like sight singing, playing

with a band, playing different variations of scales, and chords and what they were called. For this

part of the audition, my guitar teacher had me very well prepared. What worried me the most of

about the audition specifications is I had to show them I could sight-read and play a Charlie

Parker (saxophone player) solo on the guitar. These were two things that I had never tried before.

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Learning the Charlie Parker solo was realistic for me but it presented some unfamiliar

problems to me. Since Charlie Parker is a saxophone player, the way he plays or phrases his

notes is much different from most guitar players. Unfortunately for me, I had done nothing but

study guitar players. I knew just about every guitar blues lick, rock lick, and I really knew how to

play the guitar like a guitar. I had no idea how to play it like a saxophone and I knew learning a

solo was going to be challenging. I decided to learn the saxophone solo in a song called

“Parker’s Mood” written by Charlie Parker. It presented me with so many challenges that I was

so unfamiliar with. Since I had so much experience with patience after playing for so many

years, I was able to learn the solo note for note slowly, but surely.

The next hurdle to jump was sight-reading. Reading music was, and still is my least

favorite part of playing guitar. To me, it took all the soul and feeling out of my playing. I

compare it to a singer talking out song lyrics in contrast to when a singer sings song lyrics. The

difference is like night and day. My playing was always better when I wasn’t staring at a sheet of

paper and it was because I felt it much more. I hated reading music and it wasn’t the way I liked

to use the instrument. With that said, reading music was required, so I had to push myself.

Reading music was hard enough as it was, but sight-reading required me to read music at first

glance. There was no preparation for the piece I was to play and I really had no idea what kind of

song it was going to be. I needed to respond to what I knew was going to be the greatest

challenge for me in this audition, so I bought a book on reading music. I studied it like a mad

man and got a better each time I practiced. I was feeling much more confident when the time of

the audition came around.

When the day of the audition came, my mother and stepfather drove me to school. The

drive from my hometown to WCSU was just about two hours – so I had some time to think. I

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tried to remain calm, but the closer we got to the school, the more nervous I became. I knew it

was not a feeling that was going to help me in the audition so I took deep breathes and did my

best to calm myself down. My palms were sweating and I started to feel sick to my stomach. To

say that I was uncomfortable would be an understatement. When I finally got to the school, I was

put in a practice room for about an hour. I repeated the Charlie Parker solo over and over again

because I worked way too hard on it to screw it up the one time I needed to play it right.

Eventually, one of the musical directors came and got me and I sat outside the audition door

listening to the musician before me. As I heard the audition materialize, I noticed the player had

a different playing style than I did. He was a much more jazz based player and it made me

happy. I thought that I might have an edge having studied rock and blues, rather than just strictly

jazz.

When it was my turn, I entered the room and was asked to have a seat. They verified my

name and how long I had been playing. After that quick conversation, it was strictly business.

There was a drummer and a bass player sitting next to me and the first thing I was asked to do

was pick a progression to play to. Aiming to impress, I picked a progression in blues I was very

familiar with. It took the band no time to understand what they were to do and I improvised my

own solo for about four minutes until they had seen enough. I felt confident after this, I made no

mistake and thought it sounded fine.

The next task at hand was the Charlie Parker solo. I do not remember much about playing

the solo in the audition, it just happened. My fingers went where they were supposed like they

were trained perfectly. When the solo was over, I thought to myself, “That was easily the best

you have ever played that.” Right after, one of the music directors told me that I chose a very

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difficult solo and played it very well. I was feeling extremely confident at this point. What I

thought was the hard part, was over and taken care of.

They then wanted me to sight sing. Sight singing is being able to hear a note and then

replicate that note by singing it. It is a test to see if you are tone deaf in any way. One of the

music directors walked over to a piano that was in the corner of the room and started playing

notes and asking me to sing them. I never sang and never tried to, but I knew very well if a note

was in tune or not. I was tested for about 20 different notes and passed with flying colors. It was

extremely easy for me.

Up to this point, everything was going well. I felt as if I was guaranteed a spot in the

music program and I held my head high. That was my mindset until I was sat down in front a

sheet of written music. The director looked at me and said, “Play this piece.” My heart sunk into

my stomach. I knew in an instant that it was not going to happen. The piece in front of me was

about ten times more advanced than the things I had been studying for the last two months, and I

was expected to not only know it, but be able to play it on command. I told him that if I could

have five minutes to figure it out, then I would be able to play it, but I couldn’t sight read more

than the first three notes on beat. It was not so much difficult for me to try, more like impossible.

It was in that instant that I could feel the energy get sucked out of the room and I knew

that what I was offering in that moment was not going to be enough. I could see remorse in the

face of one of the directors and he could tell how I felt. He looked at me and said, “You have the

hardest part already done, it’s the study you need to work on. You are a fantastic guitar player,

but you need to have more of the theory study in your repertoire to practice professionally.” On

my way out of the room, I was so upset I had trouble carrying my guitar. I felt beaten and

cheated. I got 80% of the way through the audition perfectly, only to fall on my face at the end. It

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was so frustrating that I was having trouble finding words to describe how disappointed I was in

myself.

I sat in anguish on the car ride home. Another two-hour car ride gave me plenty of time

to think about my failure. I didn’t talk much to my parents about it, but they knew that something

didn’t go right by how quiet I was and the expression of nothingness I had to offer. All I could

think about was just the look on the instructors face when I told him I couldn’t sight read the

piece. Both he and I knew that I was good enough to play for this school, but when I fell short on

the sight-reading, I knew he felt awful for me and probably even worse about having to say no. It

was the most apparent failure I had ever experienced and I knew that it was going to take some

time for that feeling of remorse to go away.

The week following my audition, I did a lot of thinking. I thought about where I was at in

my life and looked for different ambitions besides guitar. I hated it. I hated dismissing guitar

because of one piece of paper I couldn’t decode properly on command. It felt like giving up, and

that was never a mindset I felt comfortable with. The more I thought about my situation, the

more I realized that I would never stop playing guitar. Guitar was part of me; it the foundation on

which my life was built. No amount of failures and no amount of remorse could ever make me

stop. It was my heart and nothing was going to take that away from me.

The major lesson that this audition taught me was the difficulty that one can find into

trying to take something that you love and turning it into a profession. I loved to play guitar and I

loved to progress on the instrument, but I hated reading music and theory. I always knew that

about myself, but the school required me to do it so I tried my hardest. I was now free from that.

Everything I stressed about in past months to prepare for the auditions was off my shoulders. All

the pressure and guidelines that schools enforce on their students was not my problem. I had no

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more deadlines, no more techniques I needed to follow, and no more stress related to something I

love. I couldn’t fail anymore. My new objective was simple: play and love every minute of it.

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Nathan Petrella

After having played for close to 7 years, I started to feel a lot better about where my

playing was going when I was asked to give lessons by my stepbrother, Nathan Petrella. Petrella

had a very distinct experience with music and believes that his life may have been different if he

had started playing earlier. Petrella was born on August 17th, 1990 in Pomfret, Connecticut. He

spent his entire upbringing in Pomfret and still lives there today. Petrella took guitar lessons from

myself during my eighth year of playing. These lessons were very informal, but they gave

Petrella boost and inspiration for learning the instrument.

Petrella had always poked around with the guitar because his father had one around the

house. However, he never really took playing seriously until he was 20, “I actually started

playing guitar and taking it more seriously for about a month. I was doing good with it but I had

an accident while working for a glass constructing company and broke my right hand,” explained

Petrella.

During the recovery of his hand, Petrella became very anxious to do more things. He

couldn't drive, he couldn't play games, but worst of all for him, his guitar progress was put at a

sudden halt, “It was pretty ironic really,” expressed Petrella, “I finally get my life in a direction

where I was going to progress at something, and then that all gets ripped out from underneath

me. I was frustrated to say the least.”

It took three months for Petrella's hand to heal to a point where he had enough mobility to

play. At first, his hand felt stiff and uncomfortable. Any player that has ever suffered a hand

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injury and still plays the instrument knows how important the mobility of the muscles in your

hands are while playing. One of the many benefits of playing the instrument is that it a player's

hands adapt to playing and the muscles strengthen. Because of the hand injury, Petrella was

immediately put at a disadvantage.

Since he was right handed, it only really affected his picking hand, but it was still

something that he had to work through, “It was a little disheartening at first. Even as a beginner,

I could still tell that my hand worked much better before I broke it, but it was something I

expected and I pressed on anyways. Thankfully, after a while it got stronger again and now I

hardly notice it anymore.”

After an abrupt halt, Petrella was finally ready to start learning the instrument he always

wished he could play, “I was so excited to get started at that point. I had waited for so long and

listened to so much music while my hand was injured. I was excited and I had a lot of

momentum to move forward,” explained Petrella.

It’s crucial for any starting out musician to understand how important drive is to

progressing on an instrument. You have to be interested in it and care enough to immerse

yourself into whatever you are trying to learn. It is expected that as a musician progresses, they

go through periods where they lose momentum to learn and the drive to continue sternly. With

that said, there are ways to inspire drive and add to the speed of your progression. Just watch a

video of your favorite player or listen that favorite song you have always liked. Perhaps it’s a

song that made you want to play guitar in the first place. This is so important because it keeps a

players interest fresh and is a good way to spark progress.

Though it may be obvious, it’s worth noting how important it is for the instrument you

play to be an instrument that you love. If the player doesn't like the way an instrument sounds or

is uncomfortable playing it, then it is likely that player will run into some problems. Many times

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parents want their children to play a certain instrument (piano or violin for example), but that

child may have interest in something different making it to difficult to learn a different

instrument. It is valuable to think hard about what you think would suit you best. This avoids a

lot of frustration, wasted time of switching instruments, and in many cases, money.

Petrella knew the guitar was for him and he always wanted to be able to play it. It is

something that he consistently adored and was a big part of his life even before learning how to

play. “All my favorite songs involve guitar. Rock stars that played guitar were something I

always loved when I was younger. Bands like Metallica, Megadeath, and Pantera had some of

the best sounding guitar riffs that I had ever heard.Guitar is for me, and I always knew it, it was

just a matter of getting it done,” explained Petrella.

With Petrella's drive at an all-time high, he committed himself to the instrument and tried

to play every day. His beginning experience with guitar was like a typical beginner, but it was

very particular just how much playing an instrument was able to affect his life.

One major way that Petrella's life was affected by playing an instrument was

improvement upon his discipline, “I used to be kind of loose cannon when I was younger. I

would do stupid things and get into a lot of trouble for no reason and don't really have a lot to

show for it. I ended up dropping out of high school. It wasn't for me and everyone knew it too. I

wasn't playing an instrument during that time, but looking back after having played for a while, I

feel like if I were playing I might have had more discipline and responsibility. That, and

something that kept me out of trouble.”

Petrella admits to having a hard time finding a direction, but also believes the guitar

really changed him and helped him find that direction. When he was growing up, school never

interested him, “It was forced on me, and that’s why I think I hated it so much. I'm not sure if it

was just the way I work, but the school environment of sitting at a desk and listening to a teacher

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is a way for me. I learned on my own, it was the only way.” Petrella was able to progress at

guitar much more efficiently than he had ever experienced in any school subject.

Petrella believes he experienced first hand how music can make you smarter, “I definitely

think it’s true. I don't know that I can prove that besides mentioning the fact that there are things

I can do on guitar now that I wouldn't have ever believed I could a certain amount of time ago.

It’s a pretty significant feeling of satisfaction when everything starts to click and you improve.

Its one of the better feelings I have felt in my life.”

Petrella realizes now how heavily reliant a musician can be for their instrument. It is

something that he does very frequently, and can play any time he wants. He tends to lean on it a

lot when a day doesn't go the way he had hoped, “If I have a bad day of work, I'll come home

and playing guitar for an hour or so is like the perfect medicine. I couldn't live without it at this

point.”

The beginning stages of learning an instrument can be some of the most exciting times

you will have with the instrument. Petrella described days where he would play over 5 hours at a

time because he had his mind so far into his playing that he couldn’t help himself to stop. In the

early stages of learning, everything is new for the player. Though some might see this in a

frustrating light because it is difficult to get used to the instrument at first, when things first start

to click, it is truly an amazing feeling of satisfaction. The benefit of starting the instrument is that

for the first few months, your skill level just about doubles every week. As your skill develops,

the progress begins to slow and it becomes more difficult to progress. It should be expected and

this is only because you are getting better and are no longer being challenged by things that used

to.

Sometimes you hit a rut in your playing. Petrella experienced this a few times, “I have

only been playing in a serious manner for about a year now, and I have already hit walls in my

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playing. It’s not a good feeling and it can turn you off to the instrument sometimes. With that

said, the feeling of overcoming that plateau is one of the best feelings. As a beginner it didn’t

take long for me to identify with these ruts you get into while learning; it is just something that

players have to get used to.

It is important for a beginner to understand that they will have days that are more testing

than others while playing the instrument, but this offers a few benefits too. Playing an instrument

requires a significant amount of patience and teaches the player to give things time.

Petrella experienced this first hand in life, “I got a lot more patient suddenly after picking

up the instrument. I feel a better level of patience and I believe it is because I have something to

focus my mind on that’s not negative.”

Amongst all the benefits that Petrella has gained from learning guitar, it has only taken

him one year to feel this. This feeling continues the longer you play and the benefits it can have

on your life are significant and consistent. Most of all though, Petrella agrees the biggest benefit

of playing guitar is how much fun he has doing it, “I feel like playing an instrument is just fun. I

like to have fun, which is probably why I ran into so many problems while in school. I

recommend playing music to anyone, especially if you don’t have anything productive to do. I

was like that, and I would never go back after realizing what I was missing without playing

music.”

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Gabe Sipson

Petrella was not the only student that’s experienced academic struggle that music ending

up helping. A musician named Gabe Sipson experienced similar academic difficulty while in

school. The difference between Sipson and Petrella is that Sipson started playing guitar his

freshman year of high school and he believes that it did affect and help him progress

academically.

Sipson was born in Woodstock Connecticut on March 31st, 1990. When Gabe turned 12

years old, he had acquired a musical appetite to learn an instrument that he couldn’t ignore.

Sipson wanted to play, but had no idea which instrument to pick.

Sipson tried his hand in a couple instruments, “I tried to play guitar first, but it didn’t

really suit me too well. I always loved the guitar and how apparent it is in all kinds of music, but

I found the same could be said about bass,” said Sipson.

He liked guitar and even guitar players. His favorites included famous blues musicians

like Eric Clapton, B.B. King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Even with interests in these noted

guitarists, the first time that Sipson picked up a bass guitar, he knew it was for him.

“I think that low tones of the bass are what attract me the most about it,” explained

Sipson, “I always liked the sound of guitar and the solos you could produce on the instrument,

but that seemed to be a common thought of everyone and I knew I wanted something different.

Bass stole away my musical mind. I loved how the low tones could shake the entire room.”

There are a number of differences between a bass guitar and a regular guitar. To start,

regular guitars have six strings and bass guitars only have four strings. These strings are also

significantly different in size, weight, and width to better compliment the instrument they go on.

23  

This is also the case for all stringed instruments. The tone of a string depends on its weight and

width: the bigger the string, the lower the pitch and the smaller the string, the higher the pitch.

The diameter of the string is called the gauge of the string. Bass instruments use higher gauge

strings because a bass’s strings are far thicker and heavier than a regular guitar’s, making the

vibrations of the strings much slower than that of a regular guitar. This is why the tones of bass

are so much lower.

Sipson played the bass for a number of years and started to realize how difficult the

process of learning an instrument really was very early in his playing, “I struggled with it in the

beginning much like you would expect of something new that you have never done before. The

trick is just to keep on it and understand that you can beat any problem and overcome any

obstacle as long as you keep on it. If you quit, you never go anywhere,” said Sipson.

Along with the initial struggle of learning an instrument, Sipson experienced many of the

benefits of the process too. Picking up an instrument did wonders for keeping him on task in

other things as well as music. Sipson always struggled with schoolwork and he believes the bass

helped him with it, “I have always struggled with school work, but I realized while learning bass

that I was just studying the instrument much like a math book or a biology book. The difference

between progressing myself through schoolwork and learning the bass is that school work has

always been forces and bass came naturally into my interests,” said Sipson.

From as early the 1950’s, experiments have been carried out to test the benefits (if any)

of learning music at primary schools. Some of the results match up to what Sipson experienced

in school after picking up the bass. These studies show that music increases memorizing

capacity, improves reasoning capacity, time management and organization skills, fosters the

development of team skills, and that out of 80 percent of students that received academic awards,

24  

20 percent of them were music students. With these observations of benefits of music involved

students, it is hard to argue that this is just coincidence.

Studies like this show the benefits of playing an instrument and really reveal an avenue

that someone can take to better themselves in certain ways. For example, memory capacity is

something that needs to be trained in order to play an instrument successfully, but has amazing

benefits in all kinds of different areas. Whether it is in school or everyday life, improving

memorization skills is only going to benefit. It is an extremely useful attribute for studying habits

and learning in general. By playing an instrument, you exercise your mind to remember songs,

rhythmic changes, melodies, and most importantly, how and when to play them. Though the

memory benefit of this is passive and will not be noticed overnight, in time the musician will

notice a significant memory improvement, and can continue to build upon this.

If a musician decides to stretch out musically and play with other musicians (bands,

ensembles, etc.), there are some more benefits that come out of this in areas of time management

and team skills. Using a band as an example, being part of one requires commitment and hard

work shared amongst a group of people. When a band works and is successful, the members

understand the importance of practicing together at certain times and working as a team to make

music. Working as a team seems to be much more closely related to activities like sports rather

than music, but teamwork is just as important when making music.

Good musicians work together, understand each other, and feed off the other instruments

to perform. It is a difficult skill to acquire and takes time to nurture together, but has a major

payoff when a band can perform a piece together with no mistakes. This is why music with

others is certainly a team-building activity and can make working with others a much more

familiar task. Using sports as an analogy, just like a football team's offense needs to work

together and support one another to achieve their goal of a touchdown, musicians in a band all

25  

have a particular role to follow to successfully support each other when playing a song. There is

obviously a physical difference between sports and music, but the team building attributes

required for both are just as apparent.

Sipson has experienced being in a band and shed light on the “job” of playing the bass

with others, “Bass is a support instrument; it gives me the ability to sit in the back and support

the guitars, singers, drums, etc. I love the freedom that playing a support instrument can give. I

can be extremely creative with my bass lines as long as they follow the song and it only makes

the other instruments sound better, rather than drown them out.” Because Sipson had no

ambitions to be a front man in a band, he identified with the bass's attributes as the underlying

tone of the band, but still loved playing as a support instrument.

Though Sipson has experienced a lot of curricular type benefits from playing an

instrument, he admits that nothing compares to emotional benefit that you can get from playing

guitars. Sipson agrees that playing instruments can affect moods and he has seen it many times,

“Often I will practice when my girlfriend is around. I think its subconscious, but just having

music in the room calms both of us.”

Everyone has bad days in their life, and each person copes with it differently. Like many

hobbies, music has the ability to steal your mind away from things if they are bothering you.

Sipson is a believer of this and relies on it to calm him, “There were times I can remember being

so mad about something that happened in the day and playing bass really helped me nurse that. It

can clear my mind and release any pressure I feel in my body. It is a lot like meditation

technique.”

Bass is an extremely important part of Sipson's life and he would be the first to tell you

that. He is the kind of musician that treats music as a lifestyle and he knows he owes it a lot.

“Music is a powerful tool that anyone should really explore. If you like listening to music, then it

26  

is worth it to give yourself a chance to succeed with playing it too. Be patient and watch your life

change for the better.”

27  

Josh Guerraz

One person who has seen many musicians grow and prosper from music is my guitar

teacher, Joshua Guerraz. Guerraz was born in Putnam, Connecticut on January 19, 1979. He

spent his childhood in Killingly Connecticut. Guerraz picked up a guitar when he was six years

old and has been playing for 25 years. He is a guitar teacher at Gordon Lassalle's Music. After

having taught for a number of years, Guerraz saw his students’ progress and augment their skills

much like Sipson did. Though playing and teaching are two different things when it comes down

to the process, Guerraz believes and expands upon the fact that playing guitar and teaching music

has helped him find himself and shape his life.

The guitar was Guerraz's first and main instrument of choice, but he also gravitated

toward other instruments such as drums, piano, and singing. He started playing drums/percussion

for his elementary school when he was in the 5th grade. His goal was to join the band. Guerraz's

experience in piano came around 7th grade music classes where he learned how to mess around

with songwriting and a small amount of music theory (notes, pitches, etc.).

When asked what attracted Guerraz to the instrument, he responded, “My parents are not

musical at all. However, they did have music playing. They played all styles: country, pop, rock,

etc. I remember going through my dad's record collection and finding a lot of early Roy Orbison,

Beach Boys, Merle Haggard, and Willie Nelson. He also had a lot of swing band stuff, especially

Glenn Miller. That was my introduction to jazz, and I liked the guitar.”

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Though no one in Guerraz's direct family was very musical, he was lucky enough to have

an uncle that played guitar. On one such occasion, Guerraz saw his uncle playing in his band. “I

was in awe of what was happening in front of me, and it was then when I knew I wanted to play

guitar,” said Guerraz. Soon after, his mother bought him his first guitar from a tag sale, “It had a

tag on it that said 50 cents. So technically, my first guitar cost a half dollar. But that was good

enough for me. It was my foundation into learning. My uncle fixed and strung it up and that was

what I learned on.” explained Guerraz.

Guerraz took guitar lessons from his uncle. He learned chords, songs, some scales, and

how to solo on the instrument. The most important things that his uncle taught him was how to

listen to music and how to train your ears. Guerraz's uncle was a well-experienced guitar player,

but didn't read music. He played the guitar as a hobby. So when the time came for Guerraz to

learn to read music, he taught himself how. These lessons were not formal, but they were

extremely helpful for Guerraz's progress for learning the instrument, how to play, and what the

instrument was capable of. Since Guerraz is predominantly a jazz guitar player and his uncle was

a rock guitar player, Guerraz taught himself how to play jazz once he got a grasp on the

instrument. Guerraz does admit there were a lot of holes to fill because he was self taught when

he got to high school, “I didn't have formal lessons until I was a senior in high school. It was a

real eye opener! I was fixing a lot of holes that were in my playing and trying to catch up on all

of the technique that I missed throughout the years.”

Guerraz believes that a lot can be learned from playing guitar when it comes to discipline.

Guerraz played guitar all the time. Every bit of time he had to himself, guitar was his go-to

choice. In the beginning of his practice, he wasn't disciplined. Though Guerraz admits this, he

came to terms with the fact that discipline was not an option when he went to college at Western

29  

Connecticut State University for his Bachelors Degree in Jazz Guitar. Being in school for music

really pushed Guerraz to take the instrument more seriously and become more involved in it, “As

I became more involved in my playing, I was more involved with my discipline. All I wanted to

do was play. It was music and playing all day every day.”

As a teacher, Guerraz also notices a sense of discipline in progress in the students that

take the instrument seriously. Starting musicians need to realize that there is a lot of patience

involved in progressing with an instrument and Guerraz likes his students to know this, “As a

teacher now, I do see disciplinary progress in my students. I try to give and teach my students the

knowledge that I didn't have when I was at there level or age to give them a sort of head start on

the instrument. Finding out things on your own can take a very long time.”

Guerraz has been teaching since he got out of college, but found some initial difficulty

from going from a playing mentality to a teaching mentality. “I had a hell of a time with

switching between playing and teaching. It was tough sitting there with beginners teaching them

basic chords and basic reading on the “e” string.” As many teachers will experience, just like

students need patience to learn, teachers need patience to teach. A veteran player teaching a new

guitarist can be very tedious and repetitive, but it was all part of the teaching that Guerraz needed

to do to teach the students correctly. Though it was difficult at first, teaching and playing became

much more alike in comparison, “Once I got more students and actually practiced teaching, it

was easy to make the connection between playing and teacher. Teaching music is difficult

because being good at guitar does not necessarily make you a good teacher of it. Teaching, like

guitar, became a skill that I built upon and eventually I got the hang of it. For me, once I started

simplifying everything, my playing got a lot better and my teaching followed. It depends on how

you look at it. I believe teaching and playing are very similar with experience.”

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Though teaching is something that Guerraz loves now, music has always been the truer

love. His whole life turned into music. Not just playing music, but music in general. Guerraz

adores music more than he can put into words and he believes it has given him a lot in his life, “I

remember every important aspect of my life through music. It paved my path of life and still is

every day. I really do not know what I would be or what my life would be like if I didn't have

music. It got me through school, it got me to go to college, it made me money, and it even helped

me meet my wife. It’s almost like a lifestyle now; I can relate anything to music.” It is safe to say

that taking up an instrument for Guerraz was a life changing decision to the point where he

cannot imagine his life without it, or remember his life before it.

Guerraz also is a firm believer that it has the power to free you from any worries and

baggage that’s weighing you down. Everyone has rough days and their own ways of coping with

them. For Guerraz, guitar was a new medicine for bad days, “If I have a rough day, I pick up the

guitar and most o my worries disappear right on the spot. Even when I am in a rut or frustrated

with my playing, it still manages to relax and heal me. A day or two will pass when I am

extremely busy with other things and haven’t had the chance to play, and the first time I pick up

the guitar it’s like meeting a long lost friend all over again. It never lets you down and it is such a

remedy for your mind and soul. The same goes for listening to music too,” stated Guerraz.

Guerraz believes that instruments can have their benefits on people who play them even

when that person isn’t exactly musically gifted. In relation to some students, Guerraz stated,

“There are times where a student will walk in and instantly show a lot of passion and interest in

the guitar. It’s exciting because they have the drive to do so, but when I start teaching them, I

find that some students should play a different instrument rather than the guitar because certain

instruments compliment certain people’s skills.” Guerraz is a believer that certain people fit

31  

better with certain instruments and this can affect the learning process. Some people have a great

sense of rhythmic skill so they tend to gravitate toward percussion. Other people have more

harmonic/melody-based interests so they gravitate toward string instruments. “All instruments

require a sense of rhythm,” said Guerraz, “Along with melody and harmony, these make up the

main ingredients of music, the guitar can be difficult because of the way that it carries all three

ingredients. It does them all, but it helped me study and understand music a lot better.”

When a beginning student goes to pick up a new instrument, it is important to understand

that many instruments are different and require more skills in certain areas to play then some

others do. The piano is an example of an instrument that requires excellent hand eye coordination

and the ability to play chords and melodies on top of each other at the same time. This is because

the piano is a more melody and harmony based instrument.

If a student is trying to learn the piano but has much better skills in rhythm and beat, this

instrument will be more difficult and less natural to learn than an instrument like drums. Though

you need to understand rhythm to successfully play a piece on the piano, it is nowhere near the

rhythmic requirements to play drums. Everyone gravitates toward different instruments for

different reasons and everyone shines in certain areas comparing to others. Guerraz prefers

playing a harmonic and melodic based instrument because he had always been attracted toward

chords and learning how to manipulate them and make them different. Guitar is one of the few

instruments that allow musicians to do this. It is also an instrument used worldwide in just about

every type of music.

Josh Guerraz would be the first one to admit that his life would not be the same if he

were not introduced to guitar. It taught him discipline, how to decipher and understand music

better, and shaped the majority of his life in a positive light. By playing an instrument, Guerraz

32  

not only has a talent that he can share and entertain with others, but has also found an art he can

use to express himself and lean on when experiencing everyday troubles. “Playing guitar and

experiencing music kind of mapped out my life, and I remember every important aspect of my

life through music. It paved the majority of my life and still is to this day. Without it, I simply

wouldn’t be the same person.”

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Jason Grant

Music has a significant power when it comes to shaping and altering a person's life.

Much of this is seen in how involved Guerraz's life is with music. Because teaching is a

profession, it is part of his everyday agenda and schedule. Just like a profession, playing in a

band can have a similar involvement that is given example through the experiences of a musician

names Jason Grant.

Jason Grant was born in New Milford, Ct on June 11th, 1980. He is currently 31 years old.

For a majority of his teenage life, Grant knew he wanted to be involved in music, but did not find

the means to until he was 16 when he bought his first bass.

Bass had always been an interest of Grant’s, but he admits that it wasn’t the first

instrument that he wanted to play, “I wanted to play trumpet at first, but my parents wouldn’t get

me one. I did play the piano and drums when I went to my relatives houses so I did get some

experience with those too.” When Grant had enough of his own money, he managed to afford a

bass. It was then later that Grant found out is grandfather played the instrument as well, so he

gained some knowledge in that aspect.

When asked why he plays bass over the other instruments, Grant responded, “I prefer

bass over the other instruments even though there is a lot I like about others that bass can’t offer.

If I owned a piano and were good at it, I would probably prefer that because of the range it has.”

When Grant refers to the “range” of an instrument, he is expressing the range of tonal qualities

that an instrument can offer a musician. Using piano as an example, it has multiple octaves in

34  

many different pitch ranges (some very low tones and some very high tones). Because it offers

low range and high range on the instrument, the piano is capable of playing complex and full

songs without any restrictions on how low toned or high-toned the notes could be.

The bass is different in that it is restricted to relatively low tones. Again, this is because

of string width and sometimes even the woods used to construct them. Another aspect that bass

is missing in range is the fact that even though it is possible to play bass rhythms and bass

melodies together in a song at the same time, it is extremely difficult given the instruments

physical attributes and how it is made to be played. It requires great techniques and a lot of hard

work to achieve this on bass where as a piano is made for this and favors playing fuller and song

based music.

Though Grant loves bass, he admits that it is something that he first fell into before truly

appreciating, “Oddly enough, I play bass because at first I had friends who needed a bass player

for a band. Later the desire to play bass well grew by developing a taste for funk, and jazz

music.”

This gives good example to how the music a musician listens to can influence and alter

that musician’s style of playing. There are many different styles of music and some feature

certain instruments more than others. In the same sense, different styles of music require

different levels of skill to play. Because Grant got into funk and jazz music, his bass playing was

challenged and he was then able to build upon his skills.

Another quick way to build skill is having role models and virtuosos of the instrument. If

one musician likes a particular musician’s style, it’s wise to try and learn some of their songs to

try to incorporate that style of playing into their own. For Grant, he could name a few major

35  

influences for his bass playing, “I listened to virtuosos like Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller,

Stanley Clark, and even Flea from a rock group called The Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

There are many different influences for different genres in music and Grant experienced

first hand how playing music defined groups of people and helped him decide what he wanted to

do with his life. “Clicks are formed often in high schools, for example, around what type of

music those people primarily listen to. I drifted between clicks and never really fit into one in

particular. Once I started playing bass, I found a common ground,” Grant continued, “Playing in

bands was actually the reason I started to play, I was a part of the local music scenes well before

I played, but I wanted to be more involved. I wanted o be one of the people that the people came

to see.”

That spark of emotion led Grant to want to be in a band and take opportunities to become

a traveling musician. Grant played bass for a couple different bands. His first few bands only

played in Connecticut, but they played all over the state. After a few years of playing with a

number of bands, Grant was asked to join a new band called “The Lows” that had already been

through a few bass players including one in particular that Grant had respect for and went to

Berkley for Jazz Performance. The genre of music that they played was alternative/post hardcore

with influences from bands like Thrice, Circa Survive, Cave, and some Radiohead. In this band,

Grant got involved in writing songs. They were able to put out 2 records and a few EP's

(extended play CDs), and toured quite a bit.

Making music was Grants favorite part about being in a band. He explained the touring

had its good days, but was pretty testing and consuming to what his life used to be. “Touring is

actually far more boring than anyone ever imagine. You spend all of your time driving, waiting

to player, and eating bad food from drive-thrus and gas stations because you barely have time to

36  

make it to next venue to load in. if you have a few hours you can sleep on someone's floor if you

know anyone in the city you played, and you're even luckier if you can take a shower.” said

Grant.

Touring not only took a toll on Grant physically, but also mentally. Touring got hard on

Grant and he noticed what he explained as an “awkward detachment” from everyday life. “It gets

hard to do because you miss birthdays and significant events in the lives of people you love. If

your gone long enough, you unintentionally develop and awkward detachment from what your

life was.” said Grant.

It's true that touring for Grant was not exactly all it was cracked up to be. With that said,

Grant took the bad with the good as he explained the benefits he experienced, “Touring also had

a lot of exciting aspects that I hoped for, as did being in a band in general. There were fans, and

autographs to sign. I got to play with bands I loved, and experience the ultimate reward of

hearing people sing words that you've written to a melody that you wrote on bass.”

Grant admits that there was not much money to be made in all the touring he did. With

the collapse of the music industry as he knew it, there was and still is very little money in being a

musician professionally. It takes a lot of dedication, and a certain disregard for any other way of

life to keep doing it. For some people, this lifestyle works, but for many it is way too consuming

when compared to the benefits of it.

Having played with bands for so long, Grant has a lot of experience with playing with

bands. When asked if he saw playing in these bands as a team activity, Grant said that he could

agree, “When everyone is on the same page it's exciting. On tour, once you hit a stride you get a

feeling that you can almost improvise anything and the band will follow you. You get tighter as

37  

you go.” With that said, Grant explained that it can be a double-edged sword in ways that can

hold a band back if not corrected, “On the other hand, sometimes people don't hold up their part,

and don't grow with the rest of the band. You replace those people, and sometimes you form new

bands and end the old one. I've been on all ends of the spectrum.”

Grant has seen and experienced bands either grow or decline under the pressure of

playing music professionally. It is not an easy task. Grant agrees however, that playing in a band

for so long has helped his communications skills with people, “Playing in a band has certainly

given me the skills to work better with people in other working environments. It's easier to

communicate a point to several people for me now, and I also acted as a band manager for our

band, so I learned a lot of promotional and social media skills as well as booking and business

related things that I would probably not understand half as well if not for playing music.”

Grant's experiences give insight into what the reality of touring with a band can be at

times. Films and popular media culture like to make the rock star lifestyle seem like a fame

inspiring and fun lifestyle to live, but Grants story reveals the hard work and dedication that it

requires. Some days are better than other, but its no doubt that Grant had some experiences and

has a lot of interesting stories to share about his life because of it. When Grant was asked

whether he thought the overall affect of the band on his life was good or bad, he simply

concluded, “Looking back on my experiences, I would have to say playing in a band had a

positive effect overall on my life. Even the negative aspects became positive because I learned

from them. I wouldn't change a thing.”

Based on Grant's experiences, it’s safe to say that touring is not for everyone. However, it

is important to understand that playing music and touring are two different things. Music isn't

always about touring and making it big, but much more so the smaller accomplishments of

38  

improving and building skills on the instrument. As shown in conversation with Grant, taking

music to a touring level takes a certain kind of person. Some musicians, like Grant, play an

instrument to be in a band, while others play for entertainment and as a hobby. There is no right

or wrong way to approach an instrument in this case. This all comes down to preference and

aspirations of that person. This does however show the potential changes that playing music

professionally can have on a person's life.

Through the experiences of this assortment of musicians, it is clear that music is a pretty

powerful tool. Learning an instrument is a difficult but rewarding task as shown through the life

experiences of musicians like Jason Grant, Josh Guerraz, Nathan Petrella, and Gabe Sipson. All

these musicians had different experiences and purposes with their instrument, but all had to

invest time and show persistence and devotion to the craft to progress the way they wanted to.

Whether it was because they wanted to pursue a career professionally in music or just needed

something to keep their mind active and on track, playing an instrument proved to be the

deciding factor in these life changes for all of them. With all the hard work required to make

strides and changes in hobbies like this, its no surprise that the benefits that are earned can help

anyone turn their life in a better direction while giving them skills to build upon and impress

others with for the rest of their lives.

 

 

   

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