public List<String> getCategories() {

		// 2. Create an empty ArrayList of <String> for the categories
		List<String> ret = new ArrayList<>();

		final String sql = "SELECT name FROM Music_Categories order by name asc";
		try (
			Connection myConn = DriverManager.getConnection(
					"jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/rainforestdb", "student", "student");
			Statement myStmt = myConn.createStatement();
				ResultSet rs = myStmt.executeQuery(sql);
			){

			// 4. Process result and place data in the categories ArrayList
			while (rs.next()) {
				ret.add(rs.getString(1));
			}
		}
		catch (SQLException exc) {
			logger.severe(exc.toString());
		}

		// 5. Return the categories ArrayList
		return ret;
	}