Andrew Cornish Artist Statement

Two widely spread black parallel lines on a flimsy sheet of printer paper, that's all it came down to. I sat in the car on the way home from my third grade class just staring at that sheet. I became light headed and an!ious because I knew in the back of my mind that I could not do it. "y school was trying to get students to join a school wide band and I was eager for the opportunity. #e were gi$en a list of possible instruments and the only one that appealed to me was tenor sa!. %o e!perience was needed and I was ecstatic, so without hesitation, I signed up. %ow I&m sure this sounds like a story that e!plains how I started playing sa!ophone in third grade and I'$e been getting better and better and now I want to go to 'erklee for tenor sa!ophone. I assure you it isn&t. (ou see, the two lines on that sheet of paper weren&t just there for no reason, they were there to destroy my dreams. The distance between the lines was the distance that my thumb and pinky finger had to stretch to hit e$ery key on the sa!ophone. 'y the time I found out that my fingers couldn&t stretch that far it was too late to sign up for a different instrument. I did not gi$e up on music that day. Instead, I went out and found an instrument on my own. Since that day in third grade, I ha$e practiced $igorously to get to where I am now. )laying guitar has become much more than just a hobby in my life. I ha$e always had a $ery strong connection to music. *$en though both my parents are $isual artists, music was always blasting throughout my house as I was growing up. I was e!posed to e$erything. +ock, punk, folk, blues, electronic, bluegrass, you name it. "y greatest achie$ement in music so far is a recording of my first original song. It is an instrumental song called ,A$alanche- and it took me months and months to fully write. The recording has me o$erdubbing myself with different instruments. I played in three guitar tracks, banjo, mandolin, bass, and .kulele. The recording process was absolutely ama/ing. I started by setting up e0uipment in my garage and keeping all the doors and windows shut. #hen the set up was finished I was ready to record. I sat down on a stool with two microphones aiming at my guitar&s neck and body. The moment I hit the first note I was enthralled in the music. *$ery note just came out perfectly. "y mind was at ease and I could hear the song being played by my fingers. #hen I record I get a feeling of pure happiness and bliss1 a feeling I ha$e ne$er gotten from anything else. After the first guitar track was recorded I proceeded to record all the other instruments. #ith e$ery instrument that was added I could hear the song coming together through my headphones and I could feel the time and perfection of e$ery harmony and tone. I worked for se$en hours straight and the outcome was the best I could possibly imagine doing. "y recordings are not always successful but this one was the best thing I ha$e e$er created in my life. After the actual recording process was finished i sat down at my computer and mi!ed, panned and *2ed the instruments. This was by far my best musical achie$ement. +ecording has become my passion in life. I lo$e music of almost any style and I lo$e learning and recording new instruments and genres to e!pand my capabilities and widen my knowledge of music. 3ately I ha$e done a lot with music. I ha$e been performing, recording writing and practicing. I am also the founder of a club at my high school that I call the '4S *nsemble. The ensemble is meant to bring in musicians whose instruments are not

welcome in the official school music groups 5i.e. 6a// 'and, Concert 'and, 7rchestra8. 7ur group has bass guitarists, acoustic guitarists, banjo players, mandolin players, hand drummers, ukulele players, and e$en a lute player. The thing I lo$e most though is recording and mi!ing. I could really see myself pursuing music engineering and e$en working in a professional recording studio. That&s my passion and that&s why I lo$e music. %ot e$erything always goes perfectly but making mistakes is the only way to get better. I was de$astated when I was told that I couldn&t learn sa!ophone but that led to guitar, which became one of the most important aspects of my life. 'asically what I&m trying to say is that if you lo$e something, stick with it fore$er.