DECEMBER 2012
                               ANGELA TAPIAS


                                                     Thank You God

                       

                                                Worship of the Nations

                       

                                ANGELA TAPIAS

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       Angela felt attracted to rock music and guitar solos since she was a little girl. The idea of playing music was never well rounded in Angela's mind. But one day when she was 15 years old, she sat in the last row during a church service and suddenly the preacher asked her to come before the crowd, and said to her that he was having a vision of a lot of people praising the Lord as she played guitar and piano. In her unbelieving mind she was sure that all that was just a misunderstanding, a very weird mistake. But after that day, things started to happen in this little girl's life and she saw how that weird mistake became a reality. Years passed by and her brother bought a keyboard which became Angela's worshiping instrument each time she went into her room to be alone with God.

    The first few times she didn't really know how to play it but in the midst of her prayers she learned by ear, empirically. In her heart, a new wish was born: to have her own guitar and so she received that gift for her birthday. She set as the first goal to learn the basic chords and so she spent her time, playing trying to sing and praising the Lord.

    By the time she finished high school, she still was unsure about what to do next, to study graphic design, or fine arts, were the possible choices, but then she decided to think about it with calm. One day, one of her friends, phoned her to introduce Angela to the man who would soon become her electric guitar teacher, Luis Enrique Boada, still considered by Angela as the best teacher she ever had, and at 19 years old, rose above all those sexist and discriminatory comments (from people who think electric guitar is not for girls) when she decided to learn electric guitar. In less than six months she reached a good level that allowed her to play difficult rock and metal songs and guitar solos, she also started to play with the band from her church. One year after this, she had become the lead guitar player in a band named T-sur, which most of the songs were created by Angela herself. Her prior crossroad was finally cleared, it wouldn't be graphic design nor fine arts, Music was her final choice, and she even tried to enter to the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas in Bogotá, and things led her to get into a private university instead. Only a few days went by when she was called by the local renowned guitarist Nicolás Waldo and asked her to join his band, of course this was a great surprise for Angela. But when she started her studies at college, her life took a 180º twist. Her efforts to win a scholarship to help her parents to pay the university fees were frustrating as she realized that having excellent qualifications in every subject but not in her main instrument: guitar. Everything was getting worse each day, bad results, negative comments from teachers and mates, and inner disappointment made her think that she wasn't good enough to keep playing guitar. Day after day she was losing her passion for music, she left her band T-sur, and a new band called Moriah, where she also was playing lead guitar. She kept playing with Waldo but only for a short time, then she left that band too. Dreams were already gone and just watching a guitar made her feel frustrated, her personal life, relationship with loved ones, and even with God, was broken as well.

    She sold her guitar, and dropped out of the university, and started a new life far away from music. Almost two years after this, something happened again. Pablo Olivares, an Argentine singer, and guitar player, organized a contest and Angela decided to enter. To her surprise, she's was in the top five, and received more than 5000 positive comments of support from people around Colombia, and Latin America. She wasn't the contest winner ( by only a few votes) but even so, Pablo Olivares, gifted her with a Fender Squier Telecaster guitar for her amazing performance. From that time on, Angela went to a new church where she had a real encounter with God, which brought to her life the light she was in need of. A few days passed, and a young man named Javier Cuervo, (Angela didn't know this guy) decided to give Angela a Ephiphone Special II guitar as a gift.

   All these happenings gave Angela the strength and motivation to chase her dreams again. For her the greatest gifts weren't the guitars, but the renewed love for God, and for music. As a result of those events, a new song was born, "Thank you God" that included Angela's favorite playing technique: tapping. Empirical studies kept going on, and using a new technique named Slapping, Angela wrote a whole new piece of art named, "Worship of the Nations", including Spanish and Arabic tunes, inspired in that verse that says "every man and every tongue will praise the Lord."

   Nowadays, after recovering her faith, dreams and passion, Angela is focused in on using Music, as the way, to spread the love message from her God, and her life testimony, in her own words, her goal is, "create art that can put a smile on the Lord's face." The sad story of her university days had the purpose to purify her dreams, so her objective is no longer to become just a fast virtuoso player, but, to be loved and respected by people, and her new and definitive goal is to honor the Lord in every way she is able to do.

  Musically speaking, she has come to understand that beautiful ideas are more important than just speed and technique, for Angela music is art, not competition, and art is not about ego and contempt for others.

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