Andrew Bray is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music Education and Composition at LSU under the direction of professor Darrel Hale. Andrew is from Flower Mound, Texas and has studied under the direction of Amanda Drinkwater, Dr. Jennifer Auerbach, Michael Jones, Ted Soluri, and Jeff Jones. He chose the bassoon in sixth grade during instrument tryouts and has continued playing for seven years. Andrew also has participated in Bocal Majority bassoon and oboe camps under the direction of Dr. Auerbach. He’s participated as an ADRIT student under the direction of Ted Soluri and he interned at another camp the following year in Frisco, Texas.

Andrew is an Eagle Scout out of Troop 262 and enjoys time camping with friends. He is a former member of the National Honor Society and Tri-M music honor society at Edward S. Marcus high school in Flower Mound, Texas. Andrew also received the National School Marching Award under the direction of Jeff D. Jones at Marcus and participated in the Symphonic region band in Texas during his senior year. Andrew also progressed to area auditions his senior year of high school. Andrew enjoyed playing the euphonium his freshman and sophomore year, and tuba his junior and senior year for the Marcus High School Marching Band.

Alongside band and Boy Scouts, he’s played soccer for a total of twelve years and enjoys various other sports in his free time. He would love to write music for movies and enjoys listening to many different genres of music in his spare time. Andrew is starting to write his own music and is experimenting with various pieces of software in the process. He has a cat named Maverick and is looking to get a dog whenever possible. Andrew currently plays euphonium in the Golden Band From Tigerland, and he finished his first semester at Louisiana State University on the deans list for the school of music.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.