From Music to Code
Tags: beginners, codenewbie, watercooler, devjournal
Published: 2022-05-10 05:19:23

**Introduction:**
Hello friends of the internet! This post will become what I hope to be the starting point to my journey as a blogger. I would like to start off this series by introducing myself.

**Chapter One: High School**
Hi! My name is Andrew, and I am a 28yr. old self-taught Web Developer. Normally I wouldn't include my age, but I think it is relevant for the sake of context. As the title states, Web Development was not the first path that I pursued. When I was 16, I essentially cared about 3 things: trumpet, guitar, and video games. I practiced the trumpet... a lot! Through that practice, I was able to successfully audition into our Mississippi Lions All-State Band for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. It was this group that allowed me to experience the world through musical performance opportunities. One of my favorite locations was Sydney, Australia. 

Do you recall earlier when I mentioned that, "I essentially cared about 3 things"? Well grades were not included in that list. I was... a pretty terrible high school student when it came to academics, which landed me a poor GPA. I didn't study for the ACT, which resulted in a sub-par score. I auditioned at Mississippi State University in hopes of getting a decent scholarship, but that didn't happen. Taking the advice of my sister, I decided to apply and audition at Hinds Community College. I'm not sure if you, the reader, believes in the idea that although something we hoped for didn't happen, it doesn't mean that something great isn't just around the corner, but that is exactly what happened.

Chapter Two: Hinds Community College (The Good Years)
I grew up in a place where people, especially my peers, looked down on Community Colleges. If you didn't attend such and such University, then you were automatically looked at as inferior. For me personally, attending Hinds Community College was one of the best experiences of my life thus far. My teachers were not only amazing at their job, they had immense care and compassion for their students. During my time there, I performed in five musical ensembles which consisted of The Hinds Community College Marching Band, Wind Ensemble, Rock Band 101, Jazz Band, and the Brass Quintet.


Hinds CC also had an "International Study in England" program with Bridgwater & Taunton College in Somerset, England. My Spring semester of 2012, our Rock Band 101 and Brass Quintet groups were invited to collaborate with the groups from Bridgwater & Taunton College, which meant it was time to head to England! As if England wasn’t enough excitement for one year, that summer I toured with the World Class Drum and Bugle Corps, Phantom Regiment for the 2012 and 2013 Drum Corps International seasons. Performing with this group was one of the most difficult and rewarding experiences of my life to date. Each season, we traveled approx. 50,000 miles throughout the United States performing in various venues ranging from highschool to NFL stadiums. Our sleeping arrangements consisted of catching a couple of hours of sleep on the charter bus, or even worse.. on a gym floor. I remember there was one time at the very beginning of our 2012 season where our bus broke down and we had to cram onto the other two buses for what seemed like hundreds of miles. I had to sit on the floor of the bus with my knees to my chest because the people in front and behind me were doing the same thing. Again, if you've ever marched or have seen a DCI show, then the magic that happens during the performances makes up for all the... other stuff.


If you're keeping up, some sort of musical venture has happened every year since 2010. In May of 2014, the Hinds Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Brass Quintet were invited to perform in various locations in Paris, France. Our first performance was at the Normandy American Cemetery where I was given the opportunity to perform Taps during the 70th Anniversary Wreath Laying Ceremony. Our Wind Ensemble and Brass Quintet were also given the opportunity to perform.  One of the most memorable pieces we performed was "Hymn to the Fallen" by John Williams. To provide some context for what our surroundings were like,  if you were to  look at the Cemetery from where we performed, then directly to the right was a cliff that overlooked Omaha Beach which is where one of the D-Day landings took place. The experience of being able to see where such a horrific part of our history took place was surreal.  Other venues we performed at included various churches and Luxembourg Gardens.

2014 was the last time I traveled as a member of a performance ensemble and now that I look back on it, I think that is where things began to change.

**Chapter 3: Overplaying your Favorite Song**
I decided to extend my stay at Hinds CC for a 4th year for various reasons which I will not get into here. If I didn't make it obvious in the previous chapter, my first two years at Hinds were nothing short of amazing. However, just like we've all likely experienced the moment when our favorite song becomes the last thing we want to listen to because we had it on replay for some ridiculous amount of time, I think I overextended my time at Hinds. You see, when you have certain performance opportunities such as performing in England or France, certain annoyances become easier to overlook. Hinds was not a conservatory or some prestigious school of music where everybody had incredible work ethics, and I began to develop an unfair resentment towards many of my peers. I don’t know how to write this without sounding arrogant or conceited, but when you have performed with groups where the level of intentional focus and determination was so consistent, to experience anything less is more demoralizing than anything. I know it wasn't fair because I was the one that chose to stick around, but that was my reality at the time. My Director of Bands even warned me that I would be miserable if I decided to stay for a 4th year. I ended up taking my Fall 2015 semester off to try and figure out my next move...

**Chapter 4: Delta State University**
My memory is a little foggy, but I think it was Summer of 2015 when I went to the International Trumpet Guild Conference with Robert Cheesman, my trumpet teacher at the time. This was an incredible experience where we got to hear numerous trumpet soloists and ensembles. It was here where Mr. Cheesman introduced me to Dr. Michael Ellzey. Fast forward a couple of months and Mr. Cheesman  is telling me that I should heavily consider auditioning for Delta State University (which is where Dr. Ellzey recently started teaching). Of course I took his advice because he had become one of my biggest mentors during my time at Hinds CC.
I ended up taking an audition and eventually began my adventure at DSU during the 2016 Spring Semester. Keep in mind that I ONLY considered attending this school because of a single individual, Dr. Ellzey. If you, the reader, happen to be of the age where you are applying for colleges, please do your due diligence and research every aspect of the institution that you may have any affiliation with. I did not do this. Instead, that same resentment that I began developing at Hinds CC only grew stronger and stronger. It didn't help that Cleveland, the town where DSU was located, was a mere thimble on a map and was 2hrs from any aspect of modern civilization. I'm not sure if you are familiar with the Mississippi Delta, but there is almost...nothing... there.
This also included any musical opportunities. I made it to the very end of my degree process where I had to do a semester of Student Teaching at a Middle/High School that the University selected from an approved list, but once I walked across that stage at graduation, I cut ties with music almost entirely. That was in 2019.

**Chapter 5: From Music to Code**
Once I graduated and began my transition away from music, I began to experience a wave of uncertainty that, like a tsunami, would rush in, recede, and just when things began to become clear, the wave would come rushing back. Music had become such a large part of my identity, that without it, I didn't really know what else I was "good at". For personal reasons, I moved to a small town in Arkansas which was larger than Cleveland, but was still absent of any real opportunities for anyone in their twenties hoping to dream big outside of the internet. My first job here was an associate at a Pilot Travel Center and then quickly transitioned to a Shift Supervisor at Starbucks. I started working at Starbucks just as the holiday themed items were making their way to the menu in October of 2019.


One of my best friends started her own Tech Startup in February of 2020 and brought me on as a part of her Social Media Marketing Team. For a short time, this seemed like the start to something great that just might "stick". Our CTO at the time caught wind that I had an interest in coding. He introduced me to a Udemy course by Brad Traversy on the topic of Bootstrap. I was LOVING IT. I slowly felt like I was starting to find my next "thing"!  Obviously, I was a complete beginner so I had my limitations. I was tasked with smaller jobs such as designing and developing a page dedicated to our FAQ's so that I could build upon prior knowledge.

For reasons that I cannot disclose, the company separated from our CTO and I quickly found myself having to create my own questions and find my own answers. I started to find other YouTubers such as DevelopedbyEd, The Net Ninja, Lama Dev, Kevin Powell, JavaScript Mastery, and many others that made taking the time to learn to code less of a chore and more of a reward. I may write a post about the similarities that I have found between studying music and studying code, but for now, the important thing to know is that when you're studying music, you have your Professor that you meet with once a week to learn and refine the fundamentals of your instrument, etudes and other repertoire. It was almost impossible to deviate from the "syllabus" which, for people like me, was sort of a blessing in disguise because once I took on the challenge of learning code on my own, I found that I just wanted to learn everything all at once. I wish I had a syllabus to keep me on track. Looking back on the last two years, I feel like I have wasted so much trying to figure certain things out on my own or which "stack" is the best fit for me at this point in my coding journey. I will say that, although my thoughts may be negative, the fulfillment that I feel for getting to where I am now seems worth it. Though I still have my periods of days or weeks where motivation seems so very foreign, I am becoming more comfortable and confident in my abilities. I also have to remind myself that I was a music student for over 12 years and I have only been coding for 2 years. Honestly if you only count consecutive days that I've actually practiced code, it would be far less than 2 years. This pretty much gets us to the present, so if you made it to the end, then I salute you!! From here I would like to start routinely creating shorter posts geared towards code. There are a million and one different ways to explain concepts and fundamentals, so I am going to try and create rather than replicate. Like all things, I’ll take this one post at a time.


**Conclusion:**
I know that the majority of this post was centered around my life and music rather than code, but it would be a fictional tale if I tried to tell it otherwise. I also recognize that this post may never be seen by another pair of eyes, but if that turns out to be false and you are uncertain of the stability in your current path in life, know that you're not alone. I'm always open to talk :)

Until next time!

Andrew T. Ladd
Creator of ALStudio