Notes Newsletter Student Spotlight: Mason DeVault

Posted on January 2, 2025

Mason DeVault plays the trumpet in PYCO. He is also a Junior at Rex Putnam High School.

What first brought you into music? What attracted you to your instrument?

Music has been an integral part of my life since I was little. The radio was a large source of my musical attachment, and I grew up with a lot of classic rock. From this, a desire to play an instrument burned, but it took time for me to find my instrument of choice. I fell in love with the trumpet because of its strange appearance. It’s funny looking! It’s built on these weirdly shaped tubings, and it has those 3 distinct piston valves. As I grew more, so did my love for its cultural impacts in different musical settings such as orchestral, jazz or baroque settings.

How has the season been going so far?

I have found myself thriving more musically than I have ever! The skills I have developed since the start of the season have changed my approach towards the instrument itself and have led me to grow quite significantly! There has been one challenge I have noticed and that is the volume of notes to work with being relatively low, but I remain hopeful this will change. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting the community around me. I have connected with many new friends as a result of this program, and have grown little by little through the theory courses available. I am looking forward to growing my musical abilities towards the music I play and the connection I make with it as the season progresses on.

What is your favorite piece of music?

One of my most favorite pieces has to be Chopin’s Etude op. 10 no. 3 in E major. Its colorful, warm, and rich sound makes the piece nostalgic, and always comforting. I believe Chopin composed this piece to touch the heart of every individual, something that rings to all people that we are all individually special. It draws this comforting image in the back of my mind: a late spring on an open hill where the grass grows higher than normal with a blend of brown and green, sprouts of flowers with multitudes of colors, and an old oak tree which sits alone in all its might. The orange sun settles down over the forest which sits below this hill. It’s vivid to imagine such an impressionistic painting out of the music, but it encaptures the feeling so well.

Do you have any hobbies outside of music?

I absolutely do! One of my larger hobbies, which is also incredibly risky, is mountain biking. I also indulge in arts when I create the time. When it comes to mountain biking, and more specifically downhill biking. I love the thrill of ripping through courses where the trees fly past you, then hitting hills or jumps and turning into berms, all in this balanced system you create through you and your bike. It is gratifying, and humbling often when you get injured and you didn’t break a bone even though you thought you did trying to hit that jump hard and losing control, or skidding into a tree, having your pedals hit a rock weirdly or anything which flips your front wheel and throws you off. Injuries are common, and are an expectation when biking. It’s even more fun when it rains, as the tracks become muddy and create little puddles which accumulate on your clothes, and the rain pelts your skin as you rip through the courses again.

When it comes to my art, I partake in a lot of pencil work and have been wanting to touch into acrylics or pastels. I’ve noticed parallels between art and music, both the eras and their effects on the imagination of a person. One of my most recent large projects was a recreation of a Caravaggio painting, “The Taking of Christ,” using high end colored pencils. One of my most favorite eras out of both the musical, and especially painting eras, is Impressionism. Claude Monet has such a specific style in his paintings which I want to encompass in my pieces of art. The texture, color pallets, and even the image themselves all take comfort in that which you could come across every day. It’s one of my favorite activities to analyze besides music.

Do you have any new year’s resolutions?

When it comes to music, one of my resolutions is to take more care in encompassing the feeling in a piece of music and strive to evoke more emotion in the actions I take with my pieces. Otherwise, I hope to improve my outlook on life even more than what I strive to do. I find enjoyment in the little things, but sometimes the monotonous, repetitive structure of society weighs down this outlook, and I hope to grow and enjoy life and every moment I have. I also hope to start outputting more pieces of music for myself, since I wish to pursue composition in college besides trumpet.

Who do you admire most?

I have come across many musicians in my life, but there has been one because of his devotion towards his craft in composition and piano skills, and that would be my good friend George Miller. He’s taught me many things that have shifted both my musicianship, but also my focus in my personal life and what I want to do. I’ve struggled with the aspect of being a good student in school, which in itself can actually harm your aspirations. If you coop yourself up with so much work that you often put off what you care for to what you need to do, it could greatly affect the outcome for the future. This doesn’t necessarily mean to drop everything and strive for your dreams, but it means let go just a little, you’ll still do very well, but then you can do what you care about and remain happy. He has inspired me to dive deeper into theory and deeply analyze pieces of music by different kinds of composers to recognize patterns I may want to apply in music, something I would not have possibly done without him.

What are you most excited about for this holiday season?

In complete honesty, I’ve been excited to take a long-needed break. I am excited to be able to sit down and practice much more without the stress of school haunting me, and prioritizing what I care about. I’m excited to dive back once again to my analysis of music, something I have been having to put aside for a bit so I could catch up with school work due to educational activities. I have been excited to see my extended family as well, since it has been an incredibly long time since I have seen some of them, as well as sharing my time with them for the holidays.

As you approach your senior year, look back on your time as a student and in PYCO.  Do you have any advice (music or life) for the younger students in the organization?

I absolutely do, and they may appear to be things you have heard 100 times in their most basic forms, but they are some of the keys to success to grow both as a person, and as a musician.

Patience. Patience is one of the most important keys to success as both a person and a musician. Patience is something we as people exercise in our daily lives through interaction. Whether it be waiting in a line or sitting down and practicing that one small lick over and over in that piece of music, it takes patience. Patience is such a necessity to grow as a musician because we as humans want to have a goal completed in the moment, when the journey of a musician itself is a long road with hills, and sometimes plateau’s in which you may not see much improvement. As a musician, it’s important to celebrate your accomplishments, and continue your desire to grow. I even personally struggle with the aspect of celebrating my own accomplishments since I want to be “there” now sometimes, when I should enjoy the growth I make. As a person, patience is so vital in interactions, as having patience in listening to people shows compassion, having the patience to not eat that cookie out of the cookie jar is discipline, something that we seem to as a society lose connection with. You connect better as a result of patience, and it’s an aspect that can often be overlooked, but you grow directly as a result of your patience.

Have fun. Another one of the most important keys to success as a person and musician is to have fun doing what you are doing. Discern what is fun from what seems like fun or you are told is fun, because it can definitely have an impact on your outlook of life. Music itself is one of the most fun cultural aspects of humanity since the first musicians appeared, and besides the desire to grow, you should be able to have fun in it. If you often take things very seriously or take yourself too seriously, you can stress yourself and burn out very, very quickly, and even grow to dislike the activity. Have fun with yourself. Do things because YOU want to find enjoyment in them, not to appeal to someone or a group of people. One of my pieces of advice is simply to stop doing what sucks the enjoyment out of something, whether it be someone or something, and focus on what made it or makes it fun to do. This is a battle you come to see even as you grow. The monotony of life often anchors you to feel serious because it is a necessity. This is true to an extent, but people like each other when they know how to make something fun. When you come to terms with this, life becomes so, so much more enjoyable.