Talents comes in many forms; creating art, playing sports, telling jokes, writing, dancing, singing and many more but Freshman Hannah Norris has a peculiar talent. Not only can she sing and play the guitar, she writes her own songs as well.

“I got bored over Christmas break and we’ve always had guitars around the house, but I never knew how to play,” Norris said.

After discovering her interest for the guitar, Norris started to teach herself to play.

“I started teaching myself guitar in the seventh grade,” Norris said. “I used online databases to start learning chords and then worked on harder and harder songs. I just started getting actual lessons last February.”

Norris puts recordings of her singing and playing guitar on YouTube for viewers to enjoy.

“On YouTube, I think I’ve got five or six covers and one original,” Norris said. “I mainly play covers since that’s what I learned from.”

The time for Norris to learn the song vocally and instrumentally varies depending on the song.

“To learn, it can take anywhere from 10 minutes to about a week,” Norris said. “To play it on video, it takes about two to three weeks.”

The original song Norris wrote is titled Empty Spaces Part One, and she is working on three more original songs at the moment.

“I started writing awhile back. Empty Spaces Part One took about two hours, which is a really short period of time,” Norris said. “That one happened because I thought of a good line, and then it just expanded from there.”

Instead of writing the music down on sheet music, Norris uses a type of sheet music that’s specific to guitar and similar instruments called tabs.

“I actually have a really hard time reading sheet music, which is completely ironic, I know,” Norris said.

Norris mainly enjoys indie and folk music, but said she has always been “a major music nerd.”

“Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, Johnny Flynn, the Avett Brothers, Bob Dylan and Jack White are some of my favorite bands and artists,” Norris said.

Norris wants to pursue a career in music when she grows up. Everything else she considers a “backup plan.”

“Music has been a central part of my life and I want to contribute back to it and make something that will make others happy,” Norris said.

If students are interested in watching Norris’s videos, they can be found on her YouTube channel by searching her username hannahgn23.

16szhang@usd489.com