A Long Undiscovered Prodigy
Gabe Williams, 27, was a Penn State Student three years ago. After taking a gap year at his sophomore year, he self-trained to be a musician.
Gabe plays the piano and the drums and even though he doesn’t have a piano at his house, he tries to practice everyday. Gabe is familiar with all the resources that he can use in and outside of Penn State Campus to practice the piano. He usually plays at the Music Building II and the Nittany Lion Inn when they are available.
Gabe is a composer; he created 5 original songs in the past few years and also wrote covers. As a music enthusiast, surprisingly, Gabe doesn’t read music notes: he doesn’t play sheet music.
Gabe has always been interested in the piano since he was an elementary school student. He never had the chance to really learn it until halfway through high school. But when Gabe was sitting in a piano classroom, he only found out that he was not a natural at reading the notes.
Gabe stopped taking lessons because he lost interest in it. “I don’t think I lost interest in piano or music as a whole.” Gabe recalled, “I basically just lost interest in having to sit there and read something as I was playing.”
“I feel like my playing should be something more free.” Gabe then started to play the piano without sheet music.
Gabe explored lots of different music genres and he dig the most into the New Age music. He tried to apply his own character into this specific genre and calls it contemporary New Age. “Here” is one of his work that’s a signature piece of contemporary New Age.
It’s not easy to create a complete song especially when you don’t own all the resources. Gabe is now working with his friends with lyrics and chords in order to make his work more complete.
Gabe said that it’s never easy to make a living as a musician, but he wouldn’t stop trying. He will return to Penn State University as a sophomore next semester and in the meantime, he will always be seeking opportunities to publish his work.
Indeed, if not having a piano and not be able to read the notes won’t stop Gabe from being a musician, the seemingly cruel reality will never stop him from pursuing his dream of music.
