The Beginning of a Musical Journey
Alstan Toler started his musical journey around the beginning of 2022, when his sister gave him a guitar. He fooled around with friends on Facebook experimenting with music, before starting guitar lessons with his music teacher after school. Since then, he’s performed multiple times, and has developed a growing passion for music. The best part? This passion has plenty of time to grow, since Alstan is only 13 years old!
Alstan performed for the first time around his fourth or fifth guitar lesson, in his school talent show, where he performed John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads. “I’m not really a nervous person, so I was more excited to get up there and show what I had learned in a short amount of time,” He says. Alstan has also found himself on stage for Open Mic Night at 3 Guys Pizza and at opening day for the Williamson Farmers Market.
Working Hard and Learning More
Since then, he’s worked hard to develop himself musically. He primarily focuses on the guitar, but he experiments with other instruments, including “drums, ukuleles, bass, harmonicas, and kazoos.” While his main goal is to continue working on his guitar skills, he says “there’s not an instrument I won’t try.”
When he’s not focused on music, he’s focused on school– at Gilbert PK-8, where his favorite subjects are social studies, science, math, music, and art”-- and fun. In his free time, he enjoys playing video games, exploring the outdoors and hiking, hunting deer, and hanging out with his beagles and bearded dragon. He is also a dedicated member of his local Boy Scout Troop.
His mom, Alisha, loves seeing him do what he is passionate about. “I like to watch him play and learn new songs,” She says. Even though they have different taste in music, she still enjoys watching. “After him practicing over and over, I learn the words and can sing along in the crowd,” she says.
Moving forward, Alstan is focused on bettering himself. He currently takes weekly lessons with Larry Dotson in Gilbert, and he’s hoping to learn songs from a variety of genres. “My plan is to learn songs from a lot of genres, so my shows won’t be all the same thing,” He says. “I want to have different genres for different people.”
No matter what, Alstan is not likely to leave the stage anytime soon, describing connection with the audience as his favorite thing about performing music. “The feeling of everyone paying attention to you and clapping along and cheering you on,” he says when asked. “Words just can’t describe it.”
Alstan is the son of Alisha and Alan Toler.
All photos from Alstans's proud parents.