Senior Rowan Szpieg, upon first picking up her nylon-string guitar as a child, found out that she was not, in fact, a very good singer—nor was she improving.
Unfortunately, Rowan made the worst mistake an amateur musician can make: immediately recording herself five minutes after getting used to the tablature. Since she saw no improvement in these fateful recordings, she quickly gave up, having no motivation to try to move on. When the Pandemic occurred, Rowan had little to nothing to do—and the nylon-string guitar in the corner of her room started to look a whole lot more interesting.
“[I’ve improved] a lot. Not even just with the way that I play, but the way that I go about learning things, too, is definitely a lot different and a lot healthier,” Rowan said. “I’ve kind of gotten into a routine—into a flow of what I like to do when learning a new piece of music.”
Rowan’s music journey didn’t start with her guitar escapades, though they certainly helped stimulate her passion for music. It actually started in sixth grade, when she chose to participate in orchestra. She has played the violin every year since then. With the help of FHC’s orchestra director, Mr. Pool, Rowan has improved both in her violin skills and in her learning style.
“It’s definitely taught me a lot about patience,” Rowan said. “It’s a totally different mindset that you have to be in to really lock in and understand what you’re trying to do.
The patience that music has taught her helped Rowan develop a healthier method of practice. Most importantly, she avoids recording herself immediately after learning a song, choosing instead to focus on small but decisive improvements and almost perfecting a song.
Not only has learning music taught her a great deal about patience, but it has brought her closer to people in her life, particularly her father. Throughout the day, Terry Szpieg often texts Rowan songs that remind her of him, and she reciprocates this practice.
“It’s just something special between us,” Rowan said. “It’s not something that we have to do in tandem—we don’t have to go out every week for dinner and have a huge, deep conversation. We can just sit in my room, and we’ll listen to music.”
Growing up, Rowan has always found it easy to communicate with her mother, bonding over films and other common interests. In contrast, she lacks many common interests with her father, which used to make it harder to connect with him.
While going through the maturation process of discovering that her parents do, in fact, have amazing taste in music, Rowan also discovered a crucial connection to her father: classical and folk music. By texting each other songs and enjoying the art of music together, Rowan and her father have grown an indispensable relationship with each other.
“Recently, [my dad and I have] kind of formed an understanding of the way we work,” Rowan said. “When I was a kid, I always thought that we were such different people, but he said something to me recently that kind of helped put it into perspective: ‘You and I are a lot more alike than you realize.’”
Despite their differences, Rowan and her father have grown to understand that the way they work, both emotionally and mentally, is very similar. This realization came from music, from a mutual understanding of this universal art form. Music has helped her to communicate with her father on a deeper level, and it continues to help her communicate with others.
“A huge thing that [Mr. Pool] has taught me is that [music] is a different language,” Rowan said. “It’s something that’s understood across everybody—whether you have a huge passion for it or not, you understand music as a whole. It’s something that spans through every culture. We may not speak the exact same verbal language, but through music, through notes and patterns, through recognition of that, we can understand each other on a level that surpasses spoken communication.”
Music has helped Rowan learn patience, key communication skills, and grow her relationship with her father and many other loved ones. Though she is successful in many areas of her life, music remains a key part of who she is as a person, both emotionally and mentally.
“The thing that I could talk the most about is music,” Rowan said. “That’s really my passion. I couldn’t really talk about anything else in the way I talk about music.”
