An Upcoming Saxophonist, Rising from St Thomas Okokomaiko, Lagos

Fasakin Oluwafirefunmi, is an S.S. 1 Student of St Thomas Aquinas Catholic College Okokomaiko, Lagos Nigeria.

Talents are natural gifts given to someone by God. Talents are natural or inborn tendency to do something different from one’s peers.

At a tender age of six, I learnt how to play the recorder. I was fascinated by the instrument that I kept on playing and playing until my music tutor noticed that I had a potential to play bigger instrument, so I was eventually introduced to the saxophone, and I instantly fell in love with the instrument.

However, as a student of one of the best secondary schools in my locality where music is held in high esteem. I begin to learn more on how to play saxophone through a very dedicated teacher in person of Mr. Ayoola Sodeke. He introduced me to a lot of things which include sustaining breath for longer periods, increasing my finger speed, breathing from my diaphragm instead of my chest and improving my sight-reading.

I have worked on numerous projects but the outstanding one is recording a song with my music teacher in the studio titled ‘Erujeje’. Another project was performing one of ‘Lagbaja’ song titled ‘Konko Below’ in my school’s Christmas concert and it was great. My inspiration is from God, but my role model is a popular Nigerian Artiste called ‘Lagbaja’ who is a saxophonist to the core and a wonderful stage performer.

I hope to participate in a talent show in the future. I would love to play my saxophone as a therapeutic instrument for people with emotional and psychological problems and also to entertain people and spread joy to the world.

Playing the saxophone is a seamless activity to me now but not without challenges like sustaining my breath and breathing from my diaphragm instead of my chest while developing my talent. Everyone has talents, and I am proud to be a 21st century saxophonist.