He sits behind the grand piano in Music Room 17 and takes a moment to feel the keys with his fingers. He starts swaying his wrists back and forth the expanse of the instrument, revealing his performance skills produced by his six-year experience in music.

Considering himself a high school slacker, David Nu¤ez, 23, turned pianist and said he wants to play with an orchestra someday.

“I started playing when I realized I needed classes to pass high school,” David Nu¤ez, music major, said. “I was a bad student and I took piano classes.”

Listening to classical music when he was younger was the beginning of his penchant for music, Nu¤ez said.

“As a child, my dad had me listen to classical music. I grew up listening to that stuff. That was my biggest influence,” Nu¤ez said.

Majoring in music didn’t come easily to him, since he was a psychology major prior to discovering his talent in playing an instrument.

“I also thought I wanted to compose, but then I found so much good music to play on the piano,” Nu¤ez said. “I fell in love with the instrument.”

Nu¤ez has been to a lot of different schools, but he kept coming back to EC because he has found the coach he wants to work with- Lois Roberts, piano professor.

“She evaluates me; she is like a guide, and like a parent, she tells you what is right from wrong, and what’s favorable,” Nu¤ez said.

Nu¤ez said Roberts’ teaching and instruction is his driving force, which he didn’t find in the professors he has worked with at the universities that he’s been to.

“I didn’t realize what I had here until I left. I wasn’t happy, that’s why I came back,” Nu¤ez said.

Nu¤ez took classes at UCLA in 2002 as a music theory major and was awarded a full scholarship at CSU Fullerton, but he realized that he has much more to learn from Roberts.

“Before, I left without listening to her, but I should have asked her where to go. In my music development, it was too early to leave Ms. Roberts and EC. Whatever she believes I should study, I’ll go for that,” Nu¤ez said.

Playing at concerts has cultivated his experience in the field, he said. The places he has performed in include: EC, Fullerton College, CSU Fullerton and local venues in Fullerton.

Nu¤ez said he has developed sophistication in musical preference, which resulted from having been educated in the field of music and exposed to a wide array of musical styles.

“Classical music is artful, tasteful and thought provoking. It requires three elements-practice, talent, intellect-unlike today’s pop music,” Nu¤ez said.

He also said that good music is not necessarily what’s heard on the radio all the time. Crafting great music takes a lot of thinking.

“Music that stands the test of time, that’s the way to find good music,” Nu¤ez said. “A lot of artists nowadays borrow music from the classics and a lot of people think it’s good stuff.”

Nu¤ez said that his favorite composers include: Bach, because his music is clever and witty; Scriabin, because his music is very colorful, different and unique; Rachmaninoff, because his music is full of passion and emotion; and Chopin, because his music is sensitive, powerful and emotional.

“It takes somebody who’s talented to be able to play the feeling in the music. I would play piano concertos if that’s all I can do,” Nu¤ez said. “It’s easy to just play the notes together, but when you can make others feel like you do, it’s magic.”