If, within the past 2 years, you’ve ever seen CHS musicians performing, whether that’s at a school concert or a sporting event, you’ve likely heard multi-instrumentalist Kamren Meloy playing. Kamren Meloy is a CHS sophomore and a prominent musician in the Wenatchee Valley area. He performs in the CHS concert and jazz band, as well as participating in other musical activities, such as competing in the Solo-and-Ensemble competition, playing in orchestras, and jamming with local groups. He’s proficient in several instruments, including trombone, guitar, bass, quads, snare, and drum kit, which isn’t even everything. When asked about which ones he plays, he said, “I’m not even sure if I could name them all.”
Kamren’s primary instrument, which he plays for CHS bands, is the trombone. He’s been playing it for “around 6 to 7 years,” which has been through his whole middle school and high school career. Over that time, Kamren has played trombone for concert, jazz, pep, and marching bands in cities across the state.
When asked why he likes the trombone, he said, “You don’t have to be as precise as trumpet.” He continued saying, “With trumpet, you have to get the right embouchure for different fingerings. For trombone, you just have to get the right slide position, and then you can go up if you’re flat or down if you’re [sharp].”
While Kamren’s main instrument is the trombone, his favorite instrument by far is the guitar. He’s been playing for almost 2 years, and in that time, he’s done a lot with the instrument. He’s played in several local rock bands, punk bands, and in the CHS jazz band. Kamren is a big fan of guitar music. He enjoys “the classics”; acts such as John Mayer, Van Halen, and Megadeth, just to name a few. He specifically cites Eddie Van Halen as his “hero” and largest influence.
Kamren began his guitar journey by learning songs by ear. This is opposed to most beginner guitarists who learn by looking at tablature or sheet music. According to him, “The first six months came pretty easy for learning songs by ear.” Doing this helped develop Kamren’s ear and gave him a deeper understanding of musical concepts for guitar.
However, despite easy progress initially, Kamren has had some significant struggles with playing guitar. “At one point,” he says, “I wanted to quit because it was just so hard with all of the different techniques and stuff that you have to learn.” And while he did push through that period, he still faces difficulties. He’s had a lot of “plateaus” where his guitar progress has slowed down, which can be fairly frustrating. Yet, despite everything, Kamren carries on with playing, and currently, he says, “I can feel myself rising as a guitarist.”
While Kamren started off playing rock-oriented guitar music, he had to learn jazz guitar concepts to play in the jazz band, which has been quite tricky for him. Rock guitar uses simple power and open chords for rhythm parts, and lead segments feature natural minor scale shapes and string bending. Jazz guitar is a whole different beast; it features a lot of complex, finger-twisting chord shapes, more subtle, subdued strumming techniques, and looser, more exotic soloing.
When asked about learning jazz, he says, “The major 7 chords, minor 7 chords, and 7 chords [are the] three major ones you need to know.” Learning those chord shapes is how Kamren started, and after he did, he could “play most of the ‘happy’ songs [the jazz band] plays.” After the different 7 chords, Kamren figured out the 9 chords, and ever since, it’s been “smooth sailing on jazz guitar from there.”
Along with trombone and guitar, Kamren is also dedicated to playing percussion instruments. Kamren started doing percussion when he played cymbals for a school concert, which he found he enjoyed. He’s expanded his percussion prowess ever since. Kamren plays percussion for the marching band and the pep band, and does bass drum, snare drum, and quads. Quads in particular are Kamren’s favorite percussion instrument, since there are multiple tones you can play with them, and they have a cool sound. Kamren occasionally does percussion for concerts, but usually just does cymbals.
Alongside those individual percussion instruments, Kamren has been learning full drum kit since his freshman year, although he has a drum kit at home that he’s been “noodling around on” for a long time before then.
Kamren says that he “started out pretty bad at drums,” but he’s improved a lot in recent months. He’s been taking drumming lessons at Chinook Music in East Wenatchee, which has helped him get a lot better. Kamren says that now he’s able to “keep rhythm for whole songs.” Lately, he’s been recording his own drum tracks for popular songs.
Kamren hopes to continue playing music after high school. One of his dreams is to play bass drum in the Ohio State University marching band, and Kamren believes he has a good chance of getting into it.
“It is really tough to get into,” Kamren says on joining the Ohio State band, “but if you have a wide resume like I do, I’ve heard it is a little bit easier than other people who only stick to one instrument.” Nevertheless, Kamren Meloy is not stopping playing and performing music any time soon.
