For this week‰’s edition of the Tough Crowd interview series, I sat down with APO member and best roommate ever Rebecca Pittore to talk about her musical firsts through playing an instrument.

Being the talented woman that she is, Rebecca plays both the guitar and piano. She began playing the piano so long ago she could only recall the time as sometime before kindergarten. As for her guitar playing, she taught herself to play by ear about 3 years ago. For her musical first I went in knowing she played an instrument and I wanted to know what the first song she willingly learned how to play on her own.

An inspiration to generations of quad guitarists. Courtesy of Oasis

Because she began playing piano at such a young age, we focused on her more recently acquired guitar skills. As many people would answer, the first song she learned on guitar was “Wonderwall” by Oasis. Obviously, a guitar player‰’s classic. Her reason for the choice: She was used to learning songs by ear on the piano and already knew the song, so when a friend of hers suggested an off-the-cuff jam session, she thought “why not learn this on guitar?‰” Ironically, when the jam session actually happened her friend ended up playing the guitar with Rebecca on piano, but her newfound interest in playing the guitar had been sparked.

Although her first song on guitar was a predictable one, the songs she‰’s currently working on learning are a little more reflective of her musical style. “Welcome Home” by Radical Face is her current work in progress. Since learning “Wonderwall”, she has been listening to a lot of the Fall Out Boy Pandora station, a mainstay for myself as well, as well as the Black Keys. Her favorite contemporary songs to play on the piano are by Imagine Dragons or Green Day, which she usually plays by ear. Her favorite classical piece to play is the “Prelude in C Sharp Minor” by Rachmaninoff, an interesting piece, she says, because it is dark and harsh, making it more interesting to play than most traditional classical pieces.

Rebecca is a Spanish and Psychology double major and active on campus as the brotherhood retreat chair and adjudication committee member of the APO community service fraternity on campus.