Junior Ethan Ping is quite the musician. Ping plays guitar for the White River Christian Church band every Sunday morning and evening. He also participates in a variety of music electives at NHS.

    Ping began learning the guitar in seventh grade.

    “One day, I just picked it up,” Ping said. “There was a guy that I knew, Micah Beckwith, who was a pastor at our church, and he gave lessons. So I was like, ‘Hey, I guess that would be cool.’  And I really enjoyed it, so I started doing it. I started taking [music] more seriously after that.”

    Ping has also participated in electronic music I and II, skill building classes for talented musicians interested in learning more about writing, recording, performing, and mixing music. Taught by Jay Jasper, students participate in activities such as setting up audio equipment for various school events and object writing, a timed songwriting exercise in which students must respond to a short prompt. Ping is in his second year of the class, and has also taken two years of guitar at NHS.

    Through the class, Ping operated the main sound board for 2015’s fall musical Godspell. Music teacher Jay Jasper is proud of Ping’s accomplishments in both the guitar scene and the world of sound engineering.

    “He really took on a lot of responsibility. Because he was the person we had during setup, he got a lot of experience with cables and connections and stuff like that,” Jasper said. “On top of that, he picked up guitar pretty quickly, more quickly than most of the students I had in Guitar I. A lot of the time it takes them a while to really get into stuff, but he got into it pretty quickly.”

    Ping also uses his skills from Electronic Music to write music of his own.

“Every once in awhile, it’s fun to just sit down and do some object writing and turn some poems or little short stories into a song,” Ping said. “I don’t really post a whole lot of stuff [on SoundCloud]. I mostly just keep it in my notebook.”

    “Ping is a really good musician,” senior and Electronic Music classmate Josie Griffin said. “He has a lot of passion, and I loved watching him develop his skills over the course of the last two years.”

    From the lessons with Beckwith and Jasper, Ping grew into a performing musician for the White River Christian Church worship team, singing and playing both electric and acoustic guitar. Ping occasionally performs at Northview Church as well.

     “I enjoy being on the stage and playing in that cool environment, with lights and the audience participation,” Ping said. “I enjoy the people that I play with as well– the people in the band are just awesome. I also enjoy just connecting with other students who show up.”

    Ping’s advice for musicians performing for the first time?

  “I’d say the first time you play out, I wouldn’t take it too seriously,” Ping said. “I would focus more on having fun than anything else, and that really translates to the audience.”

    After performing, Ping enjoys getting up close and personal with the audience.

“A lot of times, [people from the audience] will be intimidated to approach me afterwards, but it’s kind of fun to go break that down and find out who they are, ask them if they have interests in music or anything else, just connecting that way.”

    In the end, Ping remains inspired to keep playing and writing by the worship pastor at his church.

   “I look up to our worship pastor at our church the most. He’s somebody who takes the music part seriously and is really good at all he does,” Ping said. “He teaches that everything we should do should be done with a certain level of excellence. I’ve really taken that with me and strived to be the best I can be.”