An Okotoks sea cadet is taking to the sticks to learn a new skill.
Amber Golhar, leading cadet with the 360 Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps Erratic, is getting a three-week virtual lesson in playing the snare drum through cadet summer camps.
“It’s fun,” said Golhar of the program. “It was a new opportunity and a challenge to learn something.”
The 13-year-old is no stranger to music. She learned how to play piano as a young girl and has since taken up the violin, clarinet and bagpipes, as well as taking lessons in recorder and ukulele in class at Foundations for the Future Charter School.
Golhar said it’s difficult to name a favourite instrument.
While she intends to play the snare drum as part of the sea cadet military band after the summer, Golhar is already part of the 78th Fraser Highlanders Youth Squad, where she plays the bagpipes.
The group has provided her the opportunity to play a unique instrument and travel to Canada’s east coast for competition in 2017.
Her interest in the pipes was inspired by her mother, Amrit.
“My mom started playing and told me about it, and I got interested and wanted to learn,” said Golhar.
The opportunity to try new things was something that drew Golhar to the sea cadet program. She had been in Navy League from age nine and aged out at 12 years old, following her older sister into the Erratic cadet organization in Okotoks.
Now she’s heading into her third year as a sea cadet and is hoping to get back to social interaction and meeting in-person.
“I like learning new things and meeting new people,” said Golhar.
