The strum of guitar strings has filled the sound of junior Josh Melchert’s life for several years, an instrument that has helped bring him not only connections, but the ability to connect as well.
Growing up with musician parents – a piano and cello instructor mother and a father who plays the drums — Melchert’s previous interactions with music involved playing the drums on his father’s kit before he branched out to take guitar lessons at age five.

“I feel like it’s given me an opportunity to meet so many new people and express myself to people. You know, like play actual shows now and play some gigs in front of real people. It’s opened a lot of doors for me,” he said.
Melchert’s guitar playing also finds its way into other aspects of his life, especially in interacting with and understanding others, a skill he considers integral to making music.

“Learning how to play in groups has taught [me that] you communicate non-verbally. You can communicate through music, through expressions and through gestures,” he said. “That has helped me with how I can talk to people in discussions and school … sometimes people understand stuff in different ways that you kind of have to figure out.”

The importance of connection and understanding became more clear to him through a formative memory of his musical journey, where he would be performing on the guitar in front of an audience for the first time during his first-grade talent show.

“I was super nervous to play guitar, and I was just gonna quit before the talent show,” he said. “I had a music teacher … he kind of gave me a pep talk, and he actually came up on stage with me and played with me. So that was kind of like a small moment and a small thing that someone did for me, but it had a huge impact on how I play guitar.”

Consistency over time is another hurdle in practicing an instrument, and Melchert acknowledges his past struggle with finding his musical direction and whether he wanted to continue at all. However, discovering his unique form of expression through the guitar has become his motivation to persevere.

“I think I like playing guitar because it is a way that I can express myself, because sometimes it’s hard to express yourself in words or in writing … it really represents myself and who I am, especially in improvising and stuff,” Melchert said. “That’s something that’s very powerful, and I think that’s something that I’ve been drawn to my entire life.”

For Melchert, the reward for years of practice has been the voice the guitar has given him, and he has never regretted the decision to keep playing.