Post credits roll: guitarist electrifies the audience

After tuning his electric guitar, sophomore Miles Nguyen takes a steadying breath, looks over his music one more time and joins his bandmates as they begin their performance.

Nguyen takes his guitar skills to Post Credits, a band that focuses on playing various genres of music such as alternative or R&B. He helped create the band in November of 2022 with current Diamond Bar High School sophomores that he attended middle school with. Nguyen’s bandmates include drummer Jalen Cai, lead singer Kaitlyn Shuffer and bass guitarist Isaiah Serrano.

“We formed the band and were supposed to perform at a talent show, but even though the talent show got canceled, we kind of just stuck with it. We ended up doing a smaller performance and just never stopped,” Nguyen said.

Both Nguyen and his bandmates are a part of their school music programs, but they continue to be a part of Post Credits because of the different experiences it offers.

“Experience with Post Credits is definitely more unique than joining a wind ensemble or Symphonic Band in school where I have been a classical percussionist,” Cai said. “It’s caring for not only the quality of the music you play, but also how you portray yourself both inside and outside of the music.” 

Starting in second grade, Nguyen picked up the acoustic guitar and started learning to play it. After two years of playing it, he transferred his skills to electric guitar, which he found more enjoyable.

“It’s a passion for music, I’m always striving to be better since there’s always room for improvement,” Nguyen said. “After receiving my electric guitar as a birthday gift during quarantine, I started trying it out for fun and trying to learn how to play it off YouTube, and after a while of learning, I just couldn’t put it down.”

As one of the two electric guitarists in Walnut High’s Advanced Jazz Band, Nguyen improves his skills as he plays alongside brass, percussion and other string instruments. Besides guitar as his main instrument, Nguyen also plays the bass clarinet and piano.

“Miles is the most dedicated person to music that I know. He’s always helping us during our practices and is talented in music theory which adds to his love of playing [guitar]. His musical inclination really pushes his passion for music.” Serrano said.

With his ever-growing interest in music, Nguyen composes music for not only Post Credits, but also for orchestras and concert bands, sometimes spending upwards of a week writing them. When writing a song for Post Credits, he writes the guitar part for the piece and makes a chord chart that has the structures and chords for the song, allowing other instruments to transpose the music. After finishing, Shuffer writes the lyrics to go along with the song to complete the piece. For Orchestra and concert band pieces, however, Nguyen develops a musical score with many different instrument parts.

“I enjoy experimenting and making all kinds of music: composing orchestral, rock and jazz pieces. The way that instruments can come together and blend honestly just fascinates me,” Nguyen said.

Every week, the band meets to practice and improve, trying out new songs and working to improve their skills. When volunteering to perform at various places like night markets, or at an autism brunch, they perform original songs such as “Coming Soon” and “Morning Coffee.” In the future, they plan to release at least one album their senior year.

“We have a whole plan and budget to buy the proper equipment,” Nguyen said. “We hope to get students from University of Southern California [involved] as a passion project for them, so we could  learn and improve on our skills of mixing songs.” Ω