Local guitarist to perform,
hold lecture at Purdue
 By
Jenny Jones
Senior Writer
As a child, he would rush home from school each
day, pick up his guitar and meet with his friends for practice.
But with so much practice time and not many performing
opportunities, local guitarist Michael Kelsey and his friends would
take any excuse they could to play in front of an audience.
They would even go so far as to invite themselves
to birthday parties — offering their musical entertainment —
even if they weren’t wanted.
Now, however, the tables have turned.
"He’s very popular here in town, just
a wizard on the guitar, and we think the students will really enjoy
him," said Laura Clavio, assistant director of Purdue Convocations.
Kelsey will give a concert at 8 p.m. Thursday at
Fowler Hall. Tickets are $10. He will also hold a lecture and demonstration,
Percussive Acoustic Techniques for the Solo Player, at 2 p.m. Saturday
in Stewart Center, Room 302. Tickets are $7.50.
Kelsey wasn’t always interested in the guitar,
however.
Sitting on his living room floor, Kelsey, 34, reflects
on how his love for music and the guitar has evolved.
"I was eight years old when I realized I wanted
to play music, and when I started out, I wanted to be a drummer,"
he said.
But by the time Kelsey was 10, he knew he wanted
to play an instrument that he could write songs with.
That’s when he chose to play the guitar —
which seemed like an obvious choice because his mom was a guitarist.
Although Kelsey’s mom supported everything
he did, she was especially interested in his musical talent.
"I was trying to learn on my own, but it was
her that pushed me to go," Kelsey said. His mother suggested lessons,
and after deciding to take them, he knew it was the best decision.
After taking his mom’s advice, Kelsey took
lessons for more than a year, and from there, began hanging around popular
performing spots where he would watch and talk with other musicians,
soaking up any musical knowledge he could learn from them.
Once his observations were over, Kelsey would hurry
home to try to imitate what the musicians had taught him.
"You try to emulate what you’re hearing,
but while you try to emulate something else, you kind of stumble upon
your own ways of doing things," Kelsey said.
Since then, Kelsey has developed an original style
of rhythms and sounds.
"Traditional ways of playing the guitar never
interested me that much," Kelsey said. "I was never really
drawn to that; I like just trying to take something or a technique,
but then trying to find a new way of just making noises."
In addition to creating his own mixtures of sounds,
Kelsey also concentrates on putting his own twist on well-known songs
— often allowing the audience to name songs they would like to
hear in a different style.
"It’s almost like a lesson in creativity,"
he said. "When you see things open up and people expressing themselves,
I think everyone can relate to that somewhere within themselves."
|
