Sunday morning gathering, members linger down the aisle of a clapboard country church, Saint Paul Lutheran.  Hymns are sung and the choir awaits, not your typical choir, but by only one boy with his guitar and his sister.

Matthew Darsey, currently a freshman at Tarleton State University, has always had a passion for music. Music has driven him to learn the guitar and expand his knowledge of other instruments’ including the piano, ukulele and harmonica. He has incorporated music throughout his life and continues to play today.

“Being able to play an instrument is something you can take with you and have with you for your entire life,” Darsey said. “I pride myself on always being able to do something, rather than playing a sport that I can only do until I’m 60 years old or so.”

From a young age, Darsey’s been playing and learning music. He began lessons over guitar in elementary school and is the only instrument that he has taken lessons for, but he built off his knowledge for other instruments such as the piano, harmonica and ukulele. He joined the band in middle school and played percussion where he was taught the music scale and how to read music.

“As a young kid, it is especially hard to get yourself to do something,” Darsey said. “My mom wanted me to learn how to play an instrument and seeing as how I probably couldn’t teach myself off Youtube, lessons were the best way to do it.”

After a few years of guitar lessons, Darsey quit due to a loss of time although he continued to play on his own and strengthen his skill. With no time on his hands, Darsey got the motivation to teach himself.

“Eventually as I got older, I didn’t have time to go to lessons each week,” Darsey said. “So, I had to just start teaching myself.”

Darsey taught himself not only the harmonica and ukulele when he was younger, but also the piano between his junior and senior year of high school. He even played with his sister in the FFA Talent Contest after only a few months of learning the piano. Although, learning an instrument is undeniably fun, it definitely came with some challenges.

“When you’re teaching yourself, it is hard to know what is right and what is wrong in terms of how you do things,” Darsey said. “It’s easy to learn but getting good is a different story.”

Darsey was motivated to continue to learn new instruments, overcome the challenges and broaden his knowledge on music. This love for music, however, wasn’t only driven by his own ambitions. Darsey was blessed with major supporters throughout his life that have pushed him to achieve his goals.

“My father has been my largest supporter, his side of the family is heavily involved in music,” Darsey said. “He has offered to buy me any instrument that I would like to take up.”

Although he already has learned four instruments, he still has the longing to learn more. He is passionate to learn new things and can’t wait to learn the next one.

“Of course, I would want to learn as many as possible, but the ones I would like to learn soonest would be the trumpet, the banjo and the violin,” Darsey said. “I want to learn trumpet because that adds more variety, with guitar and piano I can’t play certain songs and they are more of a foundational instrument for me where as the trumpet I might be able to become more of a player.”

Darsey did not learn to love music, it has been around him all his life, whether it was playing an instrument from a young age or going to family functions to sing with his cousins while his grandfather played the piano. This has made Darsey who he is today, and he will forever be impacted by this.

“It is super meaningful to myself to learn new things especially instruments, and with such a history from my family playing so many instruments and being such a musical family,” Darsey said. “I see it as almost a way to kind of fit in.”