Junior Jaxson Deckard has talents beyond performances with Warsaw’s Madrigal choir, he is also a solo musician, playing guitar and writing his own songs.

  “I play music by myself but I take lessons from Justin Lawson in Sedalia,” Deckard said.

   “I love all kinds of music, but I’d say country is my favorite. I enjoy picking up a guitar and playing whatever comes to mind,” he said.

   Jaxson writes and makes his own music, however, he only has one song fully completed, but has “numerous other songs as well,” Deckard said.

   The one song that Deckard has written and completed he called “Forgiven”. 

   “It is about my faith in Jesus and how he can forgive us no matter what we have done in our life,” Deckard said.

   Deckard does not have any songs he has written recently, but is working on finishing other songs he has already started. He is not sure when he started writing music, but knows that he has at least been writing songs since his freshman year at Warsaw High School, and has been “taking lessons from Justin Lawson in Sedalia,” since then also.

   Deckard also said that music wasn’t really in his family generations, and said he just “picked up a guitar one day and started playing.”

   Deckard played in Warsaw High Schools talent show called “Showstoppers.”

   Jaxson’s family also encourages him to continue writing music. 

   “My family is very supportive of me writing music. They encourage me and give me ideas on things to write about. They also show me new songs to play and, up until last summer, they took me to lessons every Saturday. They only stopped because I can drive now but they still go sometimes,” Deckard said.

  Vocal music director Deana Shockmann recognizes Deckards passion for music. She said music is important to him to use as “an outlet.”

   Schockmann also said Deckard’s has “very strong work ethic and puts 100 percent into whatever he’s doing,” Schockmann has known Deckard since he was in middle school. Whereas Sophomore Wesley Jackson has only known him for “2 years,” but, “didn’t know,” that Deckard wrote his own music.

   Schockmann added that Deckard compares to other musicians because of his work ethic, and persistent and consistent mentality. 

   “Some people have it, some people don’t,” Schockmann said. 

   Sophomore Wesley Jackson on the other hand said that Jaxson Deckard “is just there, somewhere in the middle.”