Music and me

 Hi, my name is Emily Pinkham. I'm a first-year music student at Converse University. I was raised for about 11ish years in

Sumter, South Carolina, before I moved to Clover. My family likes to say I've been singing since I came out of the womb.

Whether it be clanking at the piano and yelling at my Grandma's, or singing along with my Pop Pop playing guitar. When I was around 6 or 7 years old, I begantaking piano lessons. I absolutely dreaded those lessons, yet I still took them for 4 years before I quit. Something I regret, but I make up for it by still playing today. Part of the reason I quit is because I began learning guitar at a church two hours away! I enrolled in their little worship music summer camp and became interested in more instruments: drums, bass, and voice. We ended up moving to Clover to get closer to church so could start taking drumset lessons with them. My world became enshrouded with music. I started picking up the piano again, was taking guitar lessons, and began drum lessons. Over time I gained interest in other things like painting, fashion, and academics, but music was never far from my mind. 

By high school I had stopped taking drum lessons, and was reaching the end of my lessons in guitar for many reasons. However, I joined  

my high school choir which offered private lessons with no extra cost. It was a dream come true for me! I then proceeded to enhance my

vocal career throughout high school. I was trained in classical, musical theatre, and choral voice. My high school choir really shaped me into  

who I am today. It was intense, grueling, and sometimes a bit toxic. However, because of the expectations brought upon us, I was forced to  

grow into the musician I am today. Choir gave me a community I'd never had. I grew up in a house without musicians, who would look at me  

crazy when I said "My favorite chord is a Cmaj7!”. So that's what has brought me here today, studying music in college! Here's me playing:

I'd like to tap into a song that I've recently discovered that sits in the back of my mind at all hours of the day. The song is called

Car Alarm (reprise) by Pat's Soundhouse. A week ago I was doomscrolling through social media when I came across a girl playing

this obscure instrument I'd never seen before. She began playing it, and it sounded exactly like a car alarm, to the T. Next, she mixed

in these wonderful consonant harmonies, and it felt like I was overwhelmed by a story without words. The instrument, the song, and

the story was beautiful. A story of a car accident, and we can hear the car alarm shift to a heart beat, then to a heart monitor  

(emphasizing a hospital). 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcutNFPwXPE&list=RDjcutNFPwXPE&start_radio=1 

I began looking into this really cool instrument, the khaen. Just for some background, the khaen originates from Laos. It is a mouth organ that kind of looks like a bunch of flutes tossed together. This is because it is a bunch of bamboo reeds of many lengths tied together.

Now I'd like to take a dip into an awesome song that I'd use if I ever had one of those walk-ins for sports. Not that I know a lot about sports… Anyways, I think I'd use About you by The 1975, specifically 3:04-3:32, a little bridge area in there. The song actually means what the title stands "thinking about you”. Well, I mean the walk-in is about me. I think that would be pretty iconic. I actually ended up using this in my 2025 instagram post wrap. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGv7CUutzqU&list=RDtGv7CUutzqU&start_radio=1

For the final piece, this is one a lot of people probably know because Wicked is popular right now. A song I can not get behind for whatever reason is No Good Deed. It's not that I do not like the song, in fact I really want to, however I genuinely struggle to give it such a deep listen. For a while I couldn't understand why I was so uncomfortable listening to it, but I did some research and looked at the sheet music. There are SO many key changes! I think about 6. I believe the reason I struggle to listen fully to No Good Deed is because I can't find the tonal center. Some of the music choices just feel unstable or random to me. Maybe if I force myself to listen to it more, I'll learn to like it, because there are some really great sections that I like, but not all together. I can not imagine having to sing this song. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vgUsEa5FMs&list=RD6vgUsEa5FMs&start_radio=1