Finding Harmony: How students at East are expressing themselves with music

Down the halls during passing period or in the lunch line grabbing food, East students are likely to have headphones or earbuds nestled in their ears. Students aren’t allowed to have personal devices like headphones and cellphones in the classroom, but any free moment they have to listen to music during school, they’ll take. 

No matter what’s playing — or even how loud it’s blaring in their ears — students can testify that listening helps their well-being. 

“It makes me calm listening to music,” Junior Campbell Norris said. “I don’t really know why, but whenever I put on my playlist and listen to the music, it makes me feel better.”

Music helps teenagers express themselves, according to Norris. She clicks shuffle on her playlist before any AP Biology homework or a softball workout. Her favorite song right now is Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac. 

To hear what other students have playing in their headphones, the Harbinger Instagram account put up a poll asking what students’ favorite songs are and compiled them into a playlist.

Some students make their own music to express themselves. Juniors Bella Broce and Makenna Pruitt have been singers and songwriters for many years, writing songs about their personal experiences. 

Whether it’s playing the piano, the violin or the guitar, Broce has explored all different kinds of music throughout her life. Now, Broce is “addicted” to constantly strumming her guitar to improve her lyrics and sound quality in addition to her past open mics and live performances.

But music isn’t only a thing that gives her a rush — it provides a creative expression to help alleviate her anxiety.

“Music is my favorite thing ever,” Broce said. “It’s a way for me to use it as an outlet so I can express my emotions, and let out feelings that can’t be expressed any other way.”

Q: How long have you been doing music?

A: “I’ve been doing my music my whole life. My mom said, when I was three years old, all I would do is just sing and dance, just sing and dance and sing and dance… I did piano, then I did violin, then I did piano again… And then I started to take virtual lessons during COVID, and I learned how to play “Lover” by Taylor Swift.”

Q: What’s your earliest memory of music?

A: “There’s a video of me when I was five years old jumping on top of a chest with a little dress on, and my own microphone in my hand, even if it’s just a hairbrush or something like that, singing to “Shake it Off,” and dancing, and pushing my brother out of the way so I can dance. I’m dancing with him, but I’m wanting the spotlight and everything.”

Q: What’s your songwriting process?

A: “It really depends on the song. Songwriting, to me, it’s just poetry, and then you put it to chords. That’s what Taylor Swift really taught me. Because if you look through “Evermore” in “Folklore” and parts of the “Tortured Poets Department,” it’s seriously just poetry. It’s so touching to me. I want to encapsulate how she does that. So I’ll write a couple lines, even if it’s just like “brown eyes, white smile.” And then I’ll find the chords that go with it… It’s just different for every song. And emotions always just drive the song.”

Q: How do you plan to continue music after high school?

A: “I’m so excited for college, first off, but I’m gonna bring my guitar and play, and I’m just gonna keep writing songs. I’m still gonna record songs. I’m still gonna support songs and put songs out because it’s just so much fun. I love it, and I love performing. It’s my favorite thing out there, whether it’s talking in front of an audience or singing… because I know I can manipulate how I sound, or how I want to make something sound, and how it makes people feel. I really, really like drawing the emotions out of people.”

After crashing her teal Subaru Forester, there was a lot that junior Makena Pruitt could’ve done — get angry, lash out or have an immediate breakdown. Instead, she went to her room and looked at her four guitars.

A small teal-colored guitar she got at 8-years-old, the electric guitar she likes to shred on in the summer, a slightly broken guitar from an antique shop — her newest addition to the collection — but ultimately Pruitt chose the guitar that belonged to her friend’s grandpa.

Pruitt sat down on her bed — her song-writing sanctuary — opened up the Voice Memos app on her phone, then tossed it across the bed. She started strumming out chords that fit her mood and let the lyrics flow.

“It really helps me, because when I’m in a stressful moment, my brain can’t really function,” Pruitt said. “I can’t really think things through clearly, so that’s when I’ll sit down with my guitar, and it’s like I’m sorting files through my brain as I’m writing music. It kind of calms me down and makes me see things more clearly.”

Since she was little, Pruitt has used music as a coping mechanism and outlet. With both her parents being musically talented and other family members also playing instruments, Pruitt grew up listening to lyrics and rhythm. While she may not have been a musical prodigy, Pruitt developed a relationship with music at a young age that she still relies on today.

“It’s just kind of turned into a habit at this point,” Pruitt said. “As a kid, it made me feel relieved, and it made my brain kind of process everything by putting it all into my guitar. Now it’s just something that I’ve used a lot, I’ve made a lot of decisions through songwriting, and I’ve had a lot of realizations and epiphanies.”

Pruitt was never really into sports; she did dance as a kid, but that was mainly to hang out with friends since she despised pliés. Music, however, was something that Pruitt began to get more interested in as her skills developed, but she still felt embarrassed performing for other people. It was really just Pruitt and her voice memos against the world. 

“It should be a personal experience for you to create and write music about your life,” Pruitt said. “If you are producing music, and you have the opinions of other people, or maybe a profile that you’re trying to achieve as a songwriter, then your songs are going to be ruined for you and it’s not going to be like a creative outlet anymore.”

Pruitt does, however, have some of her music available on her Spotify account, which includes edited and unedited Voice Memos that she easily finds and replays for herself. 

While Pruitt will continue using music as her outlet for the stresses of high school, she also hopes to help others find music as a coping mechanism in the future when she explores the field of therapy, possibly incorporating music therapy for children.

“I do want to share this thing that I figured out as a kid with other kids who don’t have the privilege of being surrounded by a family who’s interested in that,” Pruitt said. “I do think that I will definitely incorporate [music] somehow, whether it’s in my career or just like, my personal time because it’s just that it’s that important to me that I don’t want to give that up ever.”