Senior Hayden Jones is most well known at La Salle for her talent in music. She has played in the talent show her freshman and sophomore year, has been a vital member of choir since her freshman year, has many videos on her YouTube channel, and performs paid gigs monthly.

Hayden has 628 followers on her YouTube channel ‘Hayden Jones’ and out of her 46 videos, her most viewed is a cover of ‘Hospital For Souls’ by Bring Me The Horizon, which has more than 15,000 views. Despite these impressive numbers, Hayden says that she wants to amplify her channel even more, making better quality videos and renovating the channel overall.

Hayden first realized that she had a passion for singing when when she and her friend, after taking guitar and singing lessons, performed for her 7th and 8th grade classmates – who all loved their performance. Hayden felt extremely encouraged, so she decided then that this is what she wanted to pursue.

Although this is when she decided she wanted to do this for the rest of her life, her first performance was long before that. Her first ever time performing was after she took her first set of guitar and singing lessons. She said, “I was 8 years old and scared to death.”

The song that she performed at this first performance was Ode To Joy, but her style has changed since then. Now, she not only plays mostly alternative music, but she also writes original songs.

Hayden practices once a day for at least two hours in order to be prepared for her shows. She doesn’t have a set amount of gigs that she has weekly or monthly; however, when things are going good she has about two or three a month and when bookings are slow she sometimes just plays on the sidewalk downtown.

However, since Hayden is not eighteen years old yet, it has proven to be more of a challenge to get gigs because she is currently underage, which limits her ability to perform in many venues. Although she is able to do shows at some bars, she is not able to hang around the bars before or after her performance to make more connections. However she still makes $100-$200 for every gig, and says that it is still definitely worth preforming.

These performances have let Hayden figure out that music is definitely what she wants to do with the rest of her life. This journey starts with college. She said, “The Choir Director at CCC heard me singing at a gig in an Italian Restaurant one time. Every since she has really wanted me to go to their school to pursue music there but I have my eye on PSU. It has so many diverse music classes to chose from and many of the classes you have to audition to get into.”

Hayden’s 5-year plan is to go to community college and try to get her music out there, as well as getting some college education other than music in case it does not work out. However, her life goal is to be able to tour the world because of her music. She said, “I don’t believe in limiting your goals, so my goal is to be the biggest musician in the world.”

Hayden’s advice for anyone who wants to pursue music but don’t know how is, “Just do it! Honestly you have to throw yourself at every opportunity. Try and get a following online. That’s what I’m working on right now. Pretty much practice everyday and never say no to gigs, unless they aren’t true to who you are as an artist. I’ve had to say no to playing gigs that want country music because that isn’t me.”

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If you want to check out Hayden’s music go to her YouTube channel or watch the videos below.

Song: Bright – Echosmith

Views: 1,928

Song: Breaking Up My Bones -Vinyl Theatre

Views: 1,577

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26upiWzFyAA

Song: Drown – Bring Me The Horizon

Views: 1,319

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNKzKQWuiyQ