By SAEED SAFI and ARMAAN SINGH
Tower News

Fifth-year instructor Cody Marchetti is the band teacher at Manteca High School. He brings real-world experience to the young musicians at Addie Hall. Marchetti has rocked out in cover bands and metal bands, and even played in a Christian band that competed in a talent show before breaking up. A versatile talent, Marchetti plays four different instruments: the guitar, trombone, tuba, and euphonium. Tower News sat down with Marchetti to chat about teaching music, what music means to society, and what it was like to learn music for him.

Tower News: How many instruments do you play?

Cody Marchetti: I can play a little bit of everything because of college classes but the main four I am good at is guitar, trombone, tuba, and euphonium. I can figure out the other instruments but those are the main I am really good at.

TN: What is your favorite instrument and why?

CM: I am a little bias, but my favorite is the tuba. It is my main instrument. The music in band is a little boring, but the solo stuff is really cool.

TN: What was the experience that made you fall in love with music?

CM: I did really have a big experience. Randomly I wanted to play guitar at 10 years old, my grandparents bought me a guitar. I started learning, joined band a couple of years after that and now I am here.

TN: What is the hardest instrument to learn/practice?

CM: It is a tie between the violin and the French horn. The violin is hard because there are a lot of notes and there is no specific place it tells you to put your fingers, so you have to use your ear and move your fingers a lot. The French horn is hard because when you blow into it, it is really hard to keep a consistent note.

TN: Who was your greatest music inspiration?

CM: My elementary school music teacher he was the first person who got me into band and was really encouraging.

TN: Do you have any passions outside of music?

CM: Not really, I play music at home to. I am in a band, so I play there to.

TN: Why did you become a teacher?

CM:  I don’t really know exactly why; I knew when I was in seventh grade, I wanted to be a band teacher because I really like band and music. I had really good teacher growing up, they were big inspirations. It was something I wanted to do it was something I was good at, and I did everything to become one, so I became one pretty young.

TN: What do you think is harder, being in a band or teaching music?

CM: There’s a lot of difficulties in both, I would say teaching the band is a little harder because instead of worrying your one individual part you have to worry about from four to twenty plus parts. You have to worry about little details about a band like you see the notes but the notes that come out of the instruments are different, so you have to change the notes in your head when you are teaching it. I feel hard music in band can be really challenging.

TN: Why do you think music is important to the world?

CM: It is something that every culture has and has had for many years. It is something everyone can connect to. There’s a type of music for situation, every feeling, and that sort of thing. It is something that connects us all.

TN: How would you describe the state that music is in today compared to when you were growing up?

CM: There has been a huge rise in more advanced music technology, some more electronic like music, more rap and hip-hop because of the advance music technology. I don’t think it’s worst or better just different. I know a lot of older people say music today is not good. I don’t think it’s bad at all, we all just going less from instruments and more to beats and computers.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Armaan Singh is a junior Journalism student at Manteca High School. Singh is very active in the community and likes to spend most of his time with family. He also likes to watch movies and shows, like “Spiderman” and “Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness.” He likes to play basketball and soccer, and he plays a lot of video games like Multiverse and Warzone.

Saeed Safi is a junior Journalism student at Manteca High School. Safi loves sports but mostly basketball, football, and MMA. I love video games, movies, TV, and all music (except for country). I am a big fan of Marvel, DC, and Star Wars.