One day during my sophomore year in high school, my dad surprised me with a copy of a program called FL Studio. I have never heard of it before, though it looked somewhat familiar(I’ve seen my cousin use it before many years ago). He told me it was some kind of music program, so I then downloaded the program, launched it, and I had no idea what I was looking at. I notice there were these sound files that and they made noises when I clicked on it.

Looking back at it now, my Dad probably bought it for me so that I can teach him, a common theme if something seems too technically complex for him. I then started watching videos on how to use the program and I successfully made my first beat without any formal knowledge on music beyond listening to it from a casual perspective. Over time I would watch videos, learn, and make music throughout high school learning more about music there and there.

When I enrolled at the University of Arizona, I initially chose Game Design and Development as my major; however, during my first semester, something felt off about not learning about music while spending my time there. Because of that, I changed my major to a Bachelor of Arts in Music, and selected game design as my minor.

Throughout college, I learned about music theory, digital music production, composition, instruments, the mechanics of sound, music in multimedia purposes, music in games, and more. However, one of my challenges that I face from college is learning music theory, and being so caught up in it that I stick to the formulas and treat music as it is something that is objective and concrete, like math, instead of making something that I enjoy, even if I am making parallel fifths and octaves.

I am looking forward to using the knowledge I have learned through college to further enhance my composition skills, keep practicing, maybe pursue a masters, make music for video games, or even teach people how to make music through DAWs. I would love to share my knowledge with others in the World on how to make music.