Sophomore Jace Cleek debuted his guitar skills during the January Early Release Day at PHS’s Got Talent event and took home the 2nd place trophy for Student’s Choice.
“I felt like it could have been better, but it was fun,” said Cleek.
Cleek asked freshman Isabella Flick if she knew of anything else he could play, and she talked to Booster Club Advisor Chris Jones about him playing the National Anthem. After the talent show, Cleek was asked to perform the National Anthem on his guitar at a Lady Rams basketball game on January 3.
Cleek’s grandma, Gina DeLong, bought him his first guitar at five years old and told him he should learn to play. In time, he grew to love it.
“I mean, she thinks it’s cool,” said Cleek.
Cleek started getting into playing popular songs just a few years ago when he was 13. His first personal success came when he taught himself a solo in about an hour.
“It wasn’t the full song, but it was the guitar solo to ‘Nothing Else Matters’ by Metallica,” said Cleek. “That made me think that I could do it.”
His inspiration as a musician is Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, who inspired him to learn to play.
“I just feel like the first time I listened to the music, I got a feeling that I’ve never got from any other music before. I’ve watched like millions of interviews on him,” said Cleek. “I feel like in a way we kind of have a similar personality.”
In addition to playing guitar, Cleek also plays piano and drums. He has been playing piano since he was 12 and just recently started playing drums.
Cleek learns how to play songs by repeatedly listening to them and just keeps trying until he knows it.
“I’ve tried to learn to read music, but I don’t understand it, so I just never tried to pick it up again,” said Cleek. “I think of it as like, there are rules that you have to follow. I just always thought like, if I teach myself I can do what I want. Like I don’t have to follow any like, pattern directions or anything like that.”
Although he doesn’t know how to read music, he really enjoys writing his own music. It is one of his passions along with playing instruments.
“I’ll usually record it, and I probably have like, I don’t know, over like a hundred videos of just stuff that I’ve came up with that I just keep on record. So like if I ever want to go back to that, I’ll always have it as like an intro or outro or something in between,” said Cleek.
When he is not in school, he plays in a band with his uncle, Preston Tolbert, the drummer; his friend Preston Mosqeda, the other guitarist; and his friend Levi, who he does not know his last name, is the singer. The band mostly plays rock and metal music.
In the future, Cleek plans to continue to make his music and have fun.
