Spring — 2005

John Hall

Music

“Music is a very emotional art form. And much of it is very subjective, only existing in the mind of the listener.”

Another young man, not John Hall, recalled riding along in his mom’s station wagon in the mid-60s when Jimi Hendrix came on the air. “And I remember thinking, ‘Wow! That’s cool. Mom’s getting a radio station from Mars!’”

“Yeah, Jimi can be pretty… challenging,” John admits with a laugh. But if you listen to a lot of him, you’ll find that his sources and influences in playing pretty much run the gamut.” And John plans on sampling the full ‘gamut’ of music at SMC.

“I’m just in my second semester here and just studying music, but I want to take all of these classes,” he says. “Right now, I’m taking my second Music Theory with Ms. Takesue, who really knows what she’s talking about and makes sure that everyone keeps up with the concepts. But there are so many great teachers here; a lot of them with PhDs. And I’m looking forward to learning all I can from all of them.”

John was also studying singing and anticipating his next course in classical guitar. “I’m into all the genres of popular music, and it would be great if I could just share what I love with a lot of other people,” he says. “I was studying software engineering at another college for a while, but I didn’t like it. So I thought ‘Why force yourself? Take a semester to explore some fun stuff and just see where it leads.’” Where SMC is leading John now is to music class after music class, which he hopes will make him a consummate musician. “I feel really confident and comfortable about what I’m doing here. I mean, there’s tons of information coming at you. But once you get the habit of learning, there’s a real sense of power and accomplishment.”

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