Music & ME

Hi guys and gals! My name is Kolby Rea and I am a clarinetist at Converse University (the greatest music school in the upstate). My musical journey started when I was little, about the second grade, because that’s when I started to sing. While I thought I was good at singing (do not ask me to sing now its quite rough) at the time my passion for music grew until I reached middle school. When I made it to middle school, I contemplated switching to band or just dropping music completely as music was for the nerds, so they said. But ultimately that didn’t happen and my passion for music, and more so for teaching, has grown from then until now (it’s still growing don’t worry :) ). Because I grew up in Gaffney, South Carolina, when I was deciding where to go for school for my bachelor’s, I thought either stay local or lose money and travel as I had offers as far out as Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. I appreciated staying local and attending Limestone University for the time that it was open and then transferring to Converse University(again the greatest music school in the upstate) to attempt to finish what I have started. Once I graduate, I plan to teach either elementary music or high school music preferably, although who knows, I might teach all three.

While my music taste is interestingly diverse, I think I spend more time listening to “Squabble Up” by Kendrick Lamar and he was in my top 5 artist for this year. I couldn’t let his music go after his beef with Drake caught my eye. This is also one of my favorite songs to bump down the road to after a long day.

 

If I had to choose a walk-up song for my baseball game, I would choose “Bandit” by Don Toliver. This song had a fairly nice, but not extremely heavy bass drop to help elevate my walk-up appearance.

One of the genres of music that I cannot connect with is Techno music. While it might be good for fairly lit parties (if you get my drift), I don’t think I would be jumping and dancing to this style of music on a daily basis like many people do. I appreciate the incorporation of electronics into music, but I feel stylistically this genre overdoes the incorporation of technology and music together.

 

There are many different types of music that I listen to on a daily basis ranging from classical (obviously), to rap music and even sometimes intertwine some acapella music into my daily diet of music. Most of the music that I listen to solely is based on my mood at the time when they play. I have skipped songs that the day before I would have listened to on repeat until my ear fell off. My diverse music taste has shocked many people including some of my coworkers and classmates who look at me and question how I found the music they like and know almost every lyric.