A quiet man, not known well enough by everyone, but enough to be spoken about when the topic of his musical talent is brought up. He is extremely skillful with his strings on his guitar. His fingers quietly and effortlessly move up and down the neck while his strumming is smooth and euphonious. If one were to blink he or she might miss the effortless chord changes.
At St. Louis High School senior Elliot Carter plays guitar for the Jazz band as well as the steel band.
He has been playing the guitar for the last four years of high school. Though some would assume he has natural talent, he states that it was an inspired hobby. He was inspired by the video game “Guitar Hero” for the WII gaming console.
“I love playing guitar. I am self-taught, and I have always been into and inspired by the video Game Guitar hero series and most of the music I listen to is very heavily guitar based,” Elliot Carter said.
For most guitar players, this hobby would be very expensive. That is considering all the equipment you would need and all the other things that come with learning to play.
“I think I have only spent a few hundred dollars on this hobby. I don’t really have the expensive stuff because it isn’t really in my budget, but if I did, I would have some of the really nice guitars that I like. I haven’t really gone out of my way to buy the expensive guitars since my dinky guitars work just as well,” Carter exclaimed.
For some people they assume that playing guitar means they enjoy making music, however Carter says it is not the same and does not compare to each other.
“I love playing guitar. It’s just that making music is a whole lot harder than playing music. I can play for hours and hours without breaking a sweat or getting bored, but coming up with music is so tedious and difficult even for people who do make music. I personally just want to pursue this as a hobby. I do not want this to be anything more than a hobby,” Carter explained.