What is the difference between listening to music and actually creating music? For senior Jacob Williams it is the fact that he is able to completely change the mood of a group of people.

Williams spends his open seventh period in the CMR breezeways playing music for people on his ukulele.

“I see so many people that are either stressed or upset and it brings me down. I like to make other people feel happy and calm, and playing my music seems like a great way to achieve that,” Williams said.

Although playing for large groups makes him uncomfortable, he is working on playing more every day in front of new people so he will soon be OK with a large audience.

“It’s just typical stage fright, but I’m getting a lot better,” Williams said. “People sometimes compliment me after I play a few songs, and that’s pretty neat.” Williams plays songs that not many people know. He enjoys finding songs that are not currently popular among the young generation.

He spends a lot of his free time searching for new albums to listen to. He said he enjoys showing teenagers all the different types of music. He tries to lean away from rap and modern pop songs.

“I’d say my style is folk-like. Like songs I play are different than what most teenagers listen to,” Williams said. “But it works really well for me. I’m different.”