Written by: Kristen Davis | Media by: Thomas Hajny
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Trey Brockman is a junior at Greenville College. He was homeschooled from grade school through high school. He then attended a St. Louis Community College, Meramac, for one year before transferring to Greenville College to major in Music/Audio Engineering. Brockman said,“I started piano lessons when I was four years old. I don’t actually remember why I started because I didn’t want to play. My mom asked me one day if I wanted to learn, and I said yes but my heart was like “NO!”. But, I did it. And I hated it for the first four years because my teacher was an old lady that was super mean. Then, I switched to jazz piano, which is when I fell in love with music as a whole instead of just piano specifically. That’s kind of what got me into wanting to play guitar. So yeah, that’s kind of how it all started. Then I started playing at a church in middle school called Cornerstone. As the years went on, I began to lead worship at the church. Then I came to Greenville, which is where I’ve found out whether I’m good or not.”
Transitioning from homeschooling to “real” school can be a big transition. When asked to explain his emotions regarding transitioning from a strictly worship music focused environment to a school where he would learn all forms of music, Brockman stated, “It wasn’t a hard transition because I listen to tons of music, but even though I only publicly played worship music, I knew how to play other genres. Yeah, it’s really cool because Greenville provides tons of opportunity to demonstrate your passions and your talents, and I think that is something unique to Greenville as a venue and an outlet. There are people that are willing to stick their neck out for you and say ‘Hey! We are going to let you do this, even though we don’t know much about it.’”
Trey’s Advice to the Student Body:
“Don’t be afraid to say ‘hey’ to people that you don’t know. Networking is huge and if you can make friends in a lot of different areas, you can pretty much do anything you want.”
Trey’s Advice to Music Students:
“Be bold about playing out. There are a lot of people that are super talented here that miss out on opportunities because they don’t talk or reach out to the right people.”
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Want more of Kristen Davis? Then check out this recent article she wrote:
