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Story by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Danielle A. Baker
For more than 18 years music has been an important part of Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Patrick Obrien’s life. He first learned the piano when he was just four years old and years later he discovered his passion for playing guitar. He plays several instruments, sings and writes his own songs. His passions now follow him into the Navy and onto the USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49).
Obrien can usually be found inside the Boatswain’s Mate Shop during off hours playing guitar and making up songs alongside his fellow Sailors. He loves music and enjoys sharing his passion with the people he works with even strumming songs for shipmates at talent shows at sea.
His love of guitar first began when he discovered the video game, “Guitar Hero 2.”
“I got really good at it really fast,” said Obrien. “I started playing the hardest level, expert, and within a month I beat the game. I had that dexterity already from playing piano so I figured I might as well move onto the next thing.”
Soon Obrien found an old beat up guitar in a junkyard and taught himself how to play the song “Stairway to Heaven” in just three months. He figured everything would be easy to learn after knowing how to play one of the hardest songs.
Even though he plays several instruments, Obrien doesn’t know how to read music.
“I was very against learning how to read notes,” Obrien said. “My icons, The Beatles, are my favorite of all time, and they were just naturally like that. They didn’t need to know how. Also, by knowing how to do it puts rules on music whereas not knowing how is just like having an empty canvas.”
Obrien taught himself how to play instruments by listening or watching. He simply mimics what he hears or sees.
Even with his unorthodox methods, Obrien doesn’t shy away from teaching other Sailors on board how to play the guitar. He’s convinced five people on the ship to buy a guitar and has taught four of them how to play a few songs. He gets requests often from people who want to learn from him.
His creativity and passion sparked a creative side project that he develops in his spare time.
While at sea on Harpers Ferry last year for RIMPAC 2018, he and an officer on watch came up with a TV show idea that started out as a joke but has since become a real project.
“We came up with this idea of superheroes with crappy powers,” said Obrien. “We were just joking around but then it just evolved into an insanely detailed world. It’s called Unremarkables and it’s about super heroes who have very unfortunate powers. I’m scoring the whole show for it, and so far, I’ve written about 14 songs.”
He hopes to one day perfect the scripts then pitch it to major television networks. In the meantime, he plans to do what he loves, playing guitar and writing songs.
| Date Taken: | 02.19.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 02.22.2019 00:54 |
| Story ID: | 311554 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 88 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, A Sailor’s Passion for Guitar, by PO1 Danielle Serocki, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
