The packed WHS auditorium falls silent as freshman Abby Mitty begins playing chords on her guitar. Concentrating on her fingers, she taps her foot to the beat of an acoustic rendition of Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.”

“Playing in front of the entire school during the talent show was my proudest moment singing. I would never have imagined doing that in my wildest dreams,” Mitty said.

Singing on stage for the entire student body was Mitty’s first time performing in front of an audience. During Winter Week, Mitty performed with teaching assistant Jared Walsh and her freshman classmate Jack Gaddis. Mitty admits that this performance was nerve racking, but it was definitely worth it.

“It was scary, but it was a really good experience,” Mitty said. “The positive feedback I got made me feel like it is important that I continue playing.”

It was odd fate that led Mitty to playing guitar and singing in the first place. After suffering from a concussion in sixth grade, Mitty was not allowed to play sports. Instead, the three-season athlete had to pick up a new hobby for the six months she couldn’t be active.

“I couldn’t go to school, so my doctor told me I should try doing other hobbies. Guitar sounded really fun, and once I took it up, I immediately fell in love with it,” Mitty said.

Mitty owned her first guitar since third grade, but it wasn’t until her concussion that she began focusing on playing it. According to Mitty, playing helped her heal and kept her busy. After she recovered, she kept music in her life; she began taking lessons from Luigi Grasso, a guitar teacher. Grasso encouraged Mitty to sing with her guitar.

“I sang on my own, but I never sang out loud in front of people until my guitar teacher pushed me to,” Mitty said.

Since then, Mitty has covered songs by famous artists and has even written some of her own music. Last year, she wrote her first song “Hold Me For Now.”

“When I write a song, the music just comes to me,” Mitty said. “It’s hard to describe how I write my lyrics. It’s not really based on other songs or on real-life experiences. It’s more like I have a melody in my mind, and I just find words for it.”

Mitty shares that when she writes a song, she doesn’t like to put too much pressure on it. Her process is not structured, and she doesn’t like to sit down with the intent to write.

“Usually I will write a song after I come up with some chords. The lyrics and melody just flow into my mind,” Mitty said.

Playing, singing and writing has been a soothing hobby for Mitty.

“When I am playing guitar I don’t think about anything. The chords just come very easily to me,” Mitty said.

Although Mitty loves playing music, she doesn’t see herself making it her career. Instead, she enjoys playing for fun and wants to keep learning and growing as a musician.

“My playing keeps progressing, and I just want to keep getting better,” Mitty said. “The better I get, the more I can do. I just want to keep learning more.”

Before her concussion, Mitty never expected that music would play such a big role in her life, and now she admits that it was the one good thing that came out of her injury.

“Music has made me a much more confident person, and playing guitar has helped me express myself,” Mitty said. “Music has made me more than just a person who likes to play sports. I am now a musician too.”