Finding balance through music
Developer Bruna Tofani plays the electric guitar, the bass, and is now learning to play the drums. What’s surprising here is that she never took classes for any of these instruments, though she appreciates music and bands so much that she started playing by simply listening to her favorite artists and exploring specialized sites and channels on the internet.
Anyone who sees her as a bassist on her current band — which hasn’t been named yet — can’t fathom that Bruna started a band with friends and neighbors, as a teenager, with no music knowledge nor any equipment at all. “We didn’t know how to play and had to borrow all equipment. In the end, we managed to play something” she remembers, as it brings a smile to her face.
On the other hand, our Trooper was part of a band who is successful to this day. However, she opted out when the schedule became too much to handle. “I did not want to be a professional musician. I’m a developer, I already have a profession. Music is a hobby, I do it to relax and to blow off steam”, she explains.
Even though each band had its own style and were part of different stages in Bruna’s life, they do have something in common: her bandmates were mostly women. She defines playing her music as a leisure activity with a pinch of activism and tells us that she always identified with feminism, whether listening to an all-female band or going to rallies for women’s rights. Moreover, our back-end developer recalls working since she was 16 years old in mostly-male settings, which in turn sparked her interest in interacting with other women in her free time.
And if empowerment has always been a part of our Trooper’s life, she also teaches it at least once a year at Girls Rock Camp, a vacation camp for girls aged 7 to 17, where they set up a band and have classes and workshops related to the world of music, arts, culture, and history. Bruna is a volunteer and guarantees that every time she goes there, she comes back feeling invigorated. “I sort of found myself there. The girls know just about everything, a lot more than I did at their age. I always come back with a restored faith in humanity and ready to take on challenges. It is very gratifying to be in a place where female bands are encouraged, which brings out the feeling that we are capable of anything we set our minds to. I’m certainly happier than the kids, “ she says, with a glow in her eyes and yearning for the event’s last edition that happened in January of this year.
For the Hotmart developer, the camp and the music enable her to find the balance she needs when it’s time to weigh in what she needs to say without it sounding radical or offensive towards people. Because she works with a lot of men, Bruna says that this balance also helps to make the work environment more comfortable, appealing, and better for women.
