My name is Grace Heinlein, and I am a musician. I’d like to start by informing everyone that, sadly, I do not have a record deal or a platinum record, but I still count. Being a musician, a college student, and a teenager can be really hard sometimes, but it’s also extremely rewarding. I don’t talk a lot about being a musician, or how I go through it, but I figured that this would be a good place to start.
I’ve been writing music since I was really young. My songs when I was a child used things like Peanut Butter and Jelly to quantify love or soccer balls as a subject; now, I just do those things in a more covert sense. I’m kidding, mostly. But honestly, song writing and writing in general, have always been a big part of my life. It’s my main form of self-expression. As someone who feels a lot of feelings all of the time, it’s hard to wade through that mass without a guide to lead me. Music has always been the most effective funnel to share how I feel because it can connect me to people I’ve never even met.
I’ve been playing piano since I was 4, guitar since I was 14, and there was some saxophone in there for the middle years. Don’t ask me to bust it out because I don’t know how much I remember. My early works on the piano were not exactly what anyone would call masterpieces, but they were a starting point, and they were all also very sad. I was a very angsty preteen. But as I grew, learning to use the instruments how I wanted them to sound helped to develop where I wanted to go with my voice and style. I’d like to say I’m somewhere between pop and indie. When I wrote and recorded my first real song, it was one of the proudest days of my life.
Deciding to study music in college was a hard decision. I had a lot of people telling me that there was nothing for me at the end of my degree since I didn’t want to be a music teacher. I’m earning a degree called Commercial Music, where I get to learn about audio engineering, music business, and popular music as opposed to the usual classical training. I’ve always dug into my creative side, and to do that in college sounded like a dream come true. It was odd, though. I had met other musicians, in fact I’d been surrounded by them my whole life. My family is full of them, most of my friends are musicians, and I was in so many performing ensembles it was inevitable to be surrounded by them. Coming to college was different. I was surrounded by musicians who wrote songs like me. I was surrounded by people who I was trained to deem a threat. They were all kind, and they were all very talented, but as comforting as that should be, it originally put me on edge. I realized that music is about collaboration, not competition. Sure, some competition is healthy, but my music is better when I take the time to listen to someone else’s and improve my own.
Being a musician isn’t always easy. Society has trained me to fear the uncertain, and turn away from the untested. The world wants me to choose unwavering stability, and while that would be comforting, I want to share my music. I’m not a platinum record artist, and maybe I never will be, but I am a musician who makes great music. That’s what I’m going to hold onto as I strive for my goals.