The Music Man

For all collectors, the very act of collecting is an end in itself.  The mere joy of finding something new to add to a collection is satisfaction enough.  However, sometimes good collections can lead to even greater things.  Derek Hamm is an MU student and collector of all kinds of musical instruments and memorabilia.  His talent has grown with his collection, and has even afforded him the opportunity to perform with one of his favorite artists of all time.  He is often seen performing with one of guitars and singing in Speaker's Circle or on Lowry Mall between classes.

Derek Hamm: “My name is Derek Hamm and I collect a lot of instruments, anything music-related. I started playing saxophone in the fourth grade band, and after that was over in eighth grade I thought I’d never play that again and stored it away. And it wasn’t until I really started collecting other instruments that I brought it back out and learned, you know, how cool any instrument can be. You know, if you play clarinet in the band in junior high, you know, you can make it rock and do whatever you want later in life or you just learn to love it and play it, like any other instrument. But besides that, I got my first guitar for Christmas my sixth grade year and that same year, my best friend got a drum set so we started a little band that year so that was fun. And that really kick-started me into music.

My favorite band would have to be Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. I kind of started getting into them right when I was learning a lot of the instruments, and some of the instruments I have now are just because I saw them in his band. The saxophone I brought back out because it’s in his music, the mandolin is in his music. I bought a piano, learning a lot of his songs. “Thunder Road” by him is the first song I ever learned on piano, so kind of putting that together was a big moment of music in my life and it was right when his music was being introduced to me and I really connected with it and it was a reason for me to learn more and more instruments.

I have had quite a few favorite musical experiences. I actually touched Bruce Springsteen during one of his concerts. He performed “Hungry Heart” like, three feet away from me and it was incredible. And just last December I got to perform with Brandi Carlile outside her tour bus after her show. And that was just absolutely incredible. Being able to perform with one of your favorite artists of all time is uncomparable to anything I’ve ever done. It was fantastic.

I think one thing that helps with being inspired to learn a lot of instruments is just learning as many artists as possible. And if you don’t put yourself in a box of one genre and you open yourself up to anything at all it really motivates you to want to learn everything you can about music, and that’s definitely inspired me to learn all the instruments I have.”