Krzysztof Cygan

December 2015

Krzysztof Cygan, age 16, has been learning the saxophone for the last four years through SoundOUT in partnership with Music Generation Cork City, and has recently taken up the guitar.

I have been living in Ireland for five years and have been to the School of the Divine Child for the last four years. I like living here, but the one thing I do miss is the snow back in Poland. 

The reason I started learning the saxophone was I remember watching a guy playing it on YouTube and he played the song superbly. I loved the sound of it and decided I would like to learn the saxophone. It’s quite difficult learning the saxophone at the start as there’s a real technique in getting the sound right.

It was tempting to give in at the beginning, but I’m glad I stuck with it, and I advise anyone who wants to learn not to give up, to practise every day and eventually it will work for you. 

We were rehearsing and playing our Christmas concerts the last few weeks. I’ve been playing in the concerts every year since  I’ve been here. For one of the concerts, we learned songs to perform. Another concert we played was quite different. For this we had to compose the music, which was for the background of a video. In the video there were lots of images of space with moons, the Milky Way, stars and then the sun rising. We had to come up with the music; there were a good few of us playing different instruments with saxophone, guitars, magic flute, iPad, sound-beam, and piano. The music was atmospheric.

I’ve also recently started learning guitar, which I can take up for my junior cert. It’s different to the saxophone, where it’s all about the fingers. I learn and play both instruments every week and I love playing them.

Krzysztof Cygan – Music Generation Cork City