9-year-old guitar star lighting up Ontario stages

A Kitchener, Ont. musician is creating quite a fan base as he brings his talent to venues across Waterloo Region and beyond.

Max Morgado has only been playing guitar for about three and a half years. At only nine years old, that’s a significant portion of his life.

“I just got a guitar for Christmas that my dad bought me,” Max said. “So I started taking lessons.”

It wasn’t smooth sailing immediately, and he briefly questioned if he’d keep playing.

“There was a period of time where I honestly didn’t want to. It started to get funner because at the time, I wasn’t good at it. I was trash,” Max said.

“Then I started learning chords and getting a bit better, and then I wanted to keep playing.”

His family quickly realized Max had a special talent.

“One day, I just remember walking past the room and being like, ‘that sounds really good,’” Ashley Croft-Morgado, Max’s mom, said.

“I took a video and sent it to my friends and they were like ‘what is this?!’”

Max said he spends about an hour a day practicing. He typically plays in his family’s living room, where guitars line a section of the wall.

Every couple of months, he ventures out to play a show at a bar or restaurant. Local musicians have started inviting Max to play with them at their shows.

He recently played with The Goerdt Brothers, who got connected with Max through his Instagram.

The brothers said Max’s performances stand out.

“I was playing along with him and I was like ‘this is awesome,’” Glen Hoerdt said.

“Then he started shredding the lead and I got goosebumps. I had the biggest smile on my face. It’s just so cool, such a young kid.”

While playing shows, Max said he doesn’t typically notice the crowd’s reaction.

His mom said she hears a lot of the praise.

“They usually think he’s older because he’s so tall,” Croft-Morgado said.

“They always come up to me and say – and Max knows this – they say ‘congratulations, congratulations!’”

Max said he has an appreciation for all music genres, but he mostly plays classic rock including ACDC, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin.

His family is heading to Portugal for the summer, where he’ll play street shows with musicians there.

When he returns to Waterloo Region, he already has a show lined up at Lisboa Bakery and Grill in September.

He said he doesn’t have a goal, but he enjoys shows and he’ll keep playing as long as he’s welcomed.