Music's beauty

By Simon Shen

From Soulful jazz to Rock' N Roll on the beach, music has changed a lot over the years. There’s emotion to music, how the artist makes a person feel a certain way. 

Some may be sad, some may be joyful, but for music teacher Kyle Hernandez, it’s all types of music. Mr. Hernandez started out as a student in a music school in New York. 

His dad was a musician in which got him into it, and he decided he wanted to take the ball and run with it. His dad encouraged him to play, and he enjoyed playing all types of music and learning how to play each song. 

Mr. Hernandez: “My dad was a musician, got me into it and I took the ball and ran with it”.

After graduating from music school, he went on to go to grad school in Brooklyn, New York. Things were going smoothly for Mr. Hernandez as his love for music grew. After he graduated from grad school, he went on to teach at a guitar school in East Harlem for a few years before moving to Sacramento, California. 

Mr. Hernandez began teaching at Yerba Buena High School when he was 30. He finds that teaching is a very rewarding experience for him as he gets to watch students learn and bloom into musicians, starting from no prior experience. He says students stay throughout the years, starting from Freshmen to Senior year, playing their hearts out and always excited to learn different pieces. 

Mr Hernandez: “It’s a good feeling for me, it means I made a difference, and that’s probably the most rewarding part of it.”

In his free time, Mr. Hernandez plays in gigs as either lead guitarist or background almost two to three days out of the week, and in the last two months, he played twenty-two out of thirty days on a gig. He always had a good, warm feeling whenever he played in gigs, enjoying every second of it.

From his dad encouraging him to play, to now him encouraging students and helping them learn the ways of music. It’s helped him connect with students and learn more about them and who they really are. 

Mr. Hernandez: “You got students that come here with no experience with the guitar and finding their love for it”.