Lester Ngo (12) gleefully gazed out at the crowd of onlookers and firmly gripped the lower neck of his dad’s hybrid classical/acoustic guitar. He sat down in the black plastic chair placed by Emily Halim (12), one of the emcee’s at this year’s spring music festival held in the amphitheater, gave one last smile to the audience, carefully crossed his right leg over his left, and began to play “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers in the fingerstyle instrumental form of the song. 

For 3:30 minutes Ngo performed a quiet, contemplative rendition of the traditionally angsty jealousy-stricken song, while still harboring some of the intense emotion of the lead singer of The Killers, Brandon Flowers, in his original performance.

The annual Spring Music Festival, April 27-28, showcased many different talented performers, from rifle spinners from ROTC to dancers from Korean Pop Culture Dance Club. A combination of solo acts and group acts performed, playing a variety of instruments. One of the performers who braved the stage solo was Ngo, founder of the guitar club. 

Ngo’s musical interest started in elementary school with the saxophone, which taught him the basics of music. He started off by drawing inspiration from video game soundtracks. 

“I got into playing guitar the summer after my sophomore year after I heard the theme from my favorite video game, ‘The Last of Us,” Ngo said. “I really enjoy the creepy mellow classical guitar strings in the theme. Just the overall sound of the song was really pleasing to me, so I really wanted to try and replicate it.”

Ngo began to watch online lessons and also learned from his dad, who helped him get through some of the challenges for beginners such as endurance and memory.

“One of the hardest parts is probably having my fingers get adjusted to pressing on the strings, because [in the beginning] it kind of hurts,” Ngo said. “Also, part of it is having to remember different finger placements when you’re trying to make a chord.”

While searching for new songs to play, Ngo discovered the method of fingerstyle guitar which allows guitarists to play the sound and rhythm of the singer from a song. 

“I was trying to figure out other songs that can be played, and I came across a couple of videos of people playing a song, but instead of just playing and singing, they actually incorporated the vocal part into the guitar,” Ngo said. “I learned that it’s a genre of music called fingerstyle guitar.”

Ngo said he had run into difficulties in learning “Mr. Brightside” using fingerstyle guitar techniques, especially the unique hand placement and percussion rhythm. 

“The hardest part of the song is the slapping part where you have your thumb do a percussive slap on top of two strings to get a sort of drum sound effect, but also while you slap it, you have to flick the strings with your index finger to play other notes,” Ngo said. 

He practiced frequently until the challenging song became second nature. This ensured that the performance went a lot more smoothly. 

“I practiced so I wouldn’t have to put any effort into thinking about my finger placements,” Ngo said. “I practiced the song over and over again every day after school, for two months before the festival.”

Ngo said he decided to play the song because of its popularity and unique mood.

“I liked the bittersweet mood of the song,” Ngo said. “It [has] combined emotions of happiness, sadness, and jealousy.”

To some, this mountain of practice time may seem daunting, but Ngo finds the repeated strumming of the same song relaxing, even using it to help him fall asleep.

“If I’m trying to fall asleep, sometimes I will pick up the guitar and just start to play,” Ngo said. “If I’m practicing the same song over and over again, my fingers get tired and my mind gets lulled to sleep.”

Another performer at the music festival was Zoey Guenevere (10), who sang the song “Make Me Feel Your Love,” by Adele.

Growing up, Guenevere was inspired by her mom’s career in music and enjoyed singing casually with her grandma. Eventually, Guenevere realized her passion and entered a singing competition and then went on to sing at her church. Since taking up this role, Guenevere has received positive feedback about her singing and her impact at the church. 

“For church, it was only this year that I started leading worship,” Guenevere said. “Because our church is pretty small, there’s not a lot of people that can lead it, so I figured that I should volunteer to perform the service. Once I had been singing there for a while a lady came up to me and said that she enjoyed my singing and that I reminded her of her daughter who also sings.”

When Guenevere visited her family in the Philippines, she found that singing in public was much more common which allowed her to feel more comfortable with her singing, helping to catalyze her singing journey.

“Singing out loud in the Philippines is definitely more prominent,” Guenevere said. “It’s just more comfortable and less awkward. There is also a lot more karaoke there with rented-out karaoke machines always at parties.”

In addition to the many talented students performing at the festival, the event takes extensive planning to ensure it runs smoothly. Kaya Nepomuceno (11) is on the ASB rally committee and co-planned the Spring Music Festival. After planning it last year, she decided to come back to plan the event again since she sees its importance to Westview culture.

“I mainly do it because it’s nice to see everybody be able to listen to music, watch their peers, and be able to perform in front of them,” Nepomuceno said. “I think that’s such an awesome experience for everybody, especially the performers. I just want to be able to recreate those kinds of moments for Westview and be able to have those special moments on campus where everybody can be happy and have a break from worrying over their impending AP tests.”

Ngo is glad that he was able to perform at the spring music festival in his last year of high school. 

“Last year when I was watching the spring music festival, I wanted to do it, but I didn’t think I would be good enough,” Ngo said. “But now, I realize that if there is something that you are really passionate about you should just go for it and not care about how well you do.”