The guitar strings give off a majestic sound when fiddled, with each chord strung to perfection. As the student musician’s hands glide on the guitar, a song is produced that will captivate the audiences. The guitar is one of the world’s most popular instruments, and the guitar players at Bowie know how to put it to good use.

The James Bowie High School Guitar Ensemble gave a concert on the 1st of December, hoping to receive cheerful vibes from the audience and more money to help their program.

“There’s going to be a lot of the studio solo performance and the concert will start off with a christmas ensemble because it’s that time of the year,” guitar teacher Jody Moseley said.

Moseley had the beginners and others play Christmas music as well as solos being played by a select few students at the college level.

“There are going to be some students playing some solos and there are some students that have just started playing classical guitar and they’ll be playing more beginner music,” Moseley said. “Some students are playing at a college level so we will have a wide range of pieces.”

The guitar ensemble played popular christmas tunes that most of us have heard on the radio before.

“Since it’s our Christmas concert, we will be performing classic Christmas songs like Deck the Halls and Frosty the Snowman,” junior guitar player Josh Cannata said.

The guitar students put in many hours of practice to perfect their music for this concert.  The practice  took place at school  for the whole ensemble and the soloists practiced their songs at home.

“We rehearse after school every Monday and Thursday for an hour or hour and a half,” junior Fabian Isaola said. “I’m going to be playing a solo so whenever I’m at home I usually run through it a couple of times so I don’t get rusty.”

Working towards perfection, the guitar students fix their mistakes in an attempt to  make their music as good as it can be.

“If I made a mistake somewhere when I’m playing my music, I try to practice and get better on those parts,” freshman Leif Tilton said.

The concert hasn’t had many difficulties for the guitar players participating. However, some of the soloists do feel the pressure of performing alone.

“I haven’t had difficulty with the Christmas carols because I know them well and it is easy to sight read,” Cannata said. “My biggest pressure is having to perform a solo in front of the whole audience by myself because this is my first solo.”

The soloists acknowledge that there is extra pressure since they wanted their performance to be as flawless as possible.

“There’s always pressures when it comes to playing at a concert, for me especially, with the solos when everyone is watching you,” Isaola said. “You feel the pressure and you don’t want to mess up in front of a crowd.”

Even though some of the guitar students have performed before, they acknowledge that this concert isn’t like the concerts they have done in the past.

“This concert is a bit different from others because not every class is performing, it was more of an optional concert to those who were interested,” Isaola said. “It’s a bit smaller but I like it better like that so you can hear everyone around you.”

Although this concert was completely optional, the guitar students choose to use this performance as an opportunity to improve their skills on the guitar.

“Mr Moseley had asked me to play and I agreed to perform because I want to use every opportunity to be a better performer,” Tilton said.

The guitar ensemble wanted to express themselves through their music when they performed at the concert.

“I’m looking forward to showing people my talent and being able to express to others my thoughts and feelings through music,” Tilton said.

This guitar ensemble also hoped to entertain an audience during this concert as well as raise money for their program.

“This concert is to help fundraise money and we’re going to be asking for donations there so that we can raise money to help buy supplies and things like that for the guitar program,” Moseley said. “We also would like to be able to bus us around to competitions and guitar events.”

The guitar students also expected that this concert would be fun and entertaining for audiences of all ages.

“I expect this upcoming concert to be really fun and it’ll be a good way to lead into Christmas with all the Christmas songs and such,” Isaola said. “Hopefully those who come will have fun too and enjoy it as much as we do.”