The early years: People always ask me how long I've been playing the piano. The answer? All my life.
We didn't have a piano when I was born. Our family couldn't afford one. But I did get a small orange toy organ for Christmas one year. To the left of the keyboard were these 6 color-coded buttons you could push to play chords. C, F, and G were on the top row, and a-minor, e-minor, and d-minor were on the bottom. The organ came music that came with it had the melody you played on the keyboard (letters inside the notes), and the whole staff was colored in the color of the chord. Every now and then, there would be a white measure with "NC" (for no chord) written above.
That's how I learned my notes. Long before I was 4, I learned that when the notes on the page went up, the notes on the piano went up; and when the notes on the page went down - well, you get the picture. That key valuable lesson has given me awesome sight-reading abilities, surpassed only by a very few. Today, I can play almost anything placed before me.
Though my parents didn't own a piano, my grandma had one, and so did my Aunt Muffy. We would go visit them at least twice a year. At my grandma's house, I would play out of her primary song book. "The Still Small Voice" was my favorite song (and was easy for small hands to play). Aunt Muffy didn't keep much music out, so I had to make up my stuff there. Uncle Bill didn't like that, but it didn't stop me from composing my first song: The Tornado Song
I looked at the window and there it was.
A tornado was coming at my door.
He knocked on the door and I said, "Go away" ...
... and that's it. I can't remember anymore. I was 4 when I wrote that. I bet you can imagine what the piano part sounded like!
When I was 6, my parents bought me a larger organ, almost as big as a piano. It was one of those Baldwin Fun Machines. (I think that's what it was called.) My mom still has the organ at her house, but the cats have gutted it out and I think if anyone plugs it in, it might burn the house down. But that's now, let's get back to then.
I could do so much more with that organ. It had more octaves, and it came with rhythm buttons, like Bossa Nova, Waltz, Fox Trot, etc. That's when I learned my dad could play, too. Sometimes I had to wait for him to get off the thing.
It took me awhile to get through all the music my parents got me. It was a collection of 51 songs including Kumbaya, Windmills of Your Mind, Georgia on My Mind, Delilah, Sunny, Volare, and a bonus song: Somewhere My Love from Dr. Zhivago.
You may notice the absence of classical music in my repertoire. But that's okay. Even though I didn't want to play that boring stuff, my father was brainwashing me by playing classical records all the time. He would play Chopin, Stravinsky, Bizet, Beethoven, and even Offenbach. I would learn later in life to appreciate that music.
Very influential was his Dave Brubeck collection - especially the album "Time out and Beyond". I particularly enjoyed the non-standard rhythms of 5/4, 7/4, and even 11/4. Now, there is jazz influence in almost everything I write.
Elementary School: In 4th grade, when I was 9, we finally got to play an instrument. I chose the trumpet. (My father chose trombone for himself when he was a kid, so he could hit the teacher in the face with his slide, but that's another story!)
Before we could play our instrument, we first had to learn how to play the recorder. We took those home with us to practice fingerings. Me being me, I left it at home. When it was time to show what we learned, I showed the fingerings on a stick. The other kids were struggling, but my fingerings were flawless. That didn't satisfy the teacher. She wanted to hear the notes as well. Stupid teacher! I wanted to show her the "Ghost of John", if you know what I mean.
I missed my chance to show my musical prowess then, but I made up for it. I learned the trumpet quickly. In no time, we were playing classics like "Crazy Clock".
In 5th grade, I was transferred to another school to participate in their TAG (Talented and Gifted) program. There I met Mrs. Shull, who would change my life. She was an avid John Denver fan and she made us sing lots of his songs, like Grandma's Feather Bed, Country Road, and Calypso. For some reason, she also taught us songs from the Danny Kaye movie "Hans Christian Anderson". She also taught us to play the guitar. I'll never forget "Stewball was a Racehorse".
She recognized my musical talent immediately, and like a good teacher, she jumped on me and encouraged me. That year, she cast me as "Joe" in Tom Sawyer. I must have been a good actor. Everyone loved us! She also had me play one of my compositions for a PTA meeting. It wasn't much more than rolling chords, but it sure impressed those parents. I've lost the composition (I never wrote it down), but somewhere there's a video-tape of me playing it.
That was about the same time I learned I could sing. My pitch was already tuned in, and she said I had a range a little over two octaves - which I suppose is pretty large for a child.
She tried to reinforce my piano playing. By the end of 7th grade, she had me accompanying the choir on the piano. That's a big step, since I had to play at a constant tempo so the choir could follow along. Oh, the pressure!
She also let me 'borrow' a Bach collection of sheet music. Yes, she tried to get me to play that boring classical music, but I would have none of it. (I wasn't there yet.) Unfortunately for her, when I graduated, I forgot I had her music, and I never returned it. I still have it! Lucky for me, it would change my life, as I'll explain later.
High School: Way back then, high school ran from 8th grade to 12th. That's when I started marching band. There was nothing like a Pac-man halftime show to impress the parents! We were one of the best bands in the county.
That first year, there was an audition for the trumpet solo in "Brian's Song". I was a measly third trumpet, but that didn't hold me back. The band director had us play while he turned his back to us. I got the part!
During that time, my voice was changing, and I thought my singing career was ruined. I auditioned for the high-school musical "Mame", and thought I did so poorly that I didn't respond to the callback - biggest mistake of my life!
In 9th grade, I joined the choir. My voice was maturing and I quickly became a bass - a low bass. I was placed in the advanced choir. (Come to think of it, I was always in the advanced band as well - even in 8th grade. No beginner stuff for me!)
I began to notice that the music I was playing on the piano was missing something, but I didn't know what. I happened to pull out Mrs. Shull's Bach book, and played through the well known Prelude #1. It was different, yet easy and somewhat satisfying. I started playing through other pieces in that book. Yes - it was happening. I was getting hooked to classical music. We went to the music store and we bought a Beethoven sonata collection. That music was way too hard, but I tried to play through it anyway.
That's when my mom said I needed piano lessons, but I disagreed. I thought my playing was fine. You see, I couldn't hear what others when I played. I did have good sight reading skills, but I had technical difficulties getting in the way - fingers tripping over each other - uneven rhythms, etc. It wasn't until I met with a piano teacher that I was shown I could improve.
That was Mrs. Kina. She only taught me for three or four years, but her lessons have stuck with me forever. She fixed a lot of my technical problems, and was one of the best music teachers I've ever had.
Over the next few years, I would enjoy participating in musicals such as CATS, the Music Man, Guys and Dolls, and even Rutter's Reluctant Dragon. Three years in a row, I participated in the Georgia All State Choir. I was in the Men's Choir all three years, and we rocked!
During the summer following 11th grade, I went to the Governor's Honors Program as the only composer. That was an eye-opening experience as I was first exposed to the avant-garde: that is Cage, Crumb, and Philip Glass. I resisted this strange music and swore to prove that tonal music would win out in the end!
In twelfth grade, I was tricked into playing the french horn. The conductor knew I was the best candidate to play 2nd horn, but I didn't want to do it. He said fine, and he placed me last chair in the trumpet section. Not wanting to be last chair, I agreed to switch, and I'm glad I did. The french horn is much more fun to play!
College Years: I pursued a Bachelors in Music Composition. My father wanted me to pursue a more lucrative profession, but that's not what I wanted. After a couple of years, I finally relented and added a math major to my track. That would result in a 5 1/2 year plan (plus 2 1/2 years for going on a mission and saving up money).
There, I met many of the church composers. Merril Bradshaw ("The Still Small Voice") was a humble person with lots of knowledge. Thomas Durham ("With Humble Heart") threw erasers at me in class - and I deserved it, too. Stephen Jones ("When Faith Endures") was a very apt teacher who taught me the most. Reid Nibley ("I Know My Father Lives") would come into the computer lab to compose. He liked to wear this hat. The list goes on and on ...
In college, they really pushed the avant-garde. They said it was the language of the 20th century. To me it sounded like my tornado song. I didn't go to college to learn how to compose music I could already do as a child!
I resisted until I wrote my "Burning Betelgeuse." That was a recomposition of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". At first I composed the "Star Atop Apsan" (midi file on the main music page), but the teacher dismissed it. He didn't want me to simply turn the music upside down. I had to tear the music apart. That, I did, and I found it was actually fun. I had even more fun with "Change of Address", which sounds like planes crashing. Yes, in less than one year I was converted to the avant-garde.
But don't think I gave up on tonality! I still think it was wrong for Schoenberg to purposefully avoid tonalities. I'm always writing tonal pieces, but sometimes I'm just composing with new tonalities.
During my mission in Korea, I thought I was going to rest in music for a couple of years, but that didn't happen. I played in a few recitals. I was entered into a national contest in Taegu, and I won third place. I composed a branch song for the Pohang branch, but they said it was too hard to play!
After my mission, I went back to school. I got married. I composed a lot. During my last year, my "Imitations" for viola, piano, flute, clarinet, bassoon, harp, and percussionist won the Mayhew Award for that year. After such a successful piece, I had trouble deciding what came next. Also stresses of supporting a family started kicking in.
I only applied to one music graduate school - BYU, and I was accepted. In hindsight, I think I would have been better off going somewhere else - if only to gain experience from different composition teachers. But I didn't want to leave where I was - possibly another mistake.
It took three years to get that degree, as I had to work at the same time to support the family. My first daughter was born, which required a lot of my attention.
I learned a lot during those three years. One class involved working with resources in the library, and one project involved working a lot with the internet. That was a different experience, as I was able to combine music with computers - another love of mine.
Here's that project: PIVA. I worked on a few of the photographs on the Photographs page. In particular, check out the 4th picture down - the picture of Eugene Ysaye. I totally reconstructed his shoulder. Can you tell?
I put together about half of the audio clips. This involved choosing what parts of the music to include, fading it in and/out, and saving as wav files. We didn't have mp3 files back then, but it looks like someone has converted our wav files to mp3.
I also put together the entire Links page. There were a lot more links at the time, but over the past few years, they've gone bad. Only three remain intact. Still, those are my words on that page! Yes - that was a fun project.
Before I left college, I composed my Master's Thesis (Permutations), which you can hear a midi version on my main Music page. I wish I could get it performed for real, but I think it may be too hard. Perhaps one day!
The week before my thesis was due to be turned in, my second child was born a little early. Because I had a note to myself in my notebook saying, "Let's get out of here," I had to forego spending a lot of time helping my wife. Her mother came while I finished the project and I graduated that year.
After college: I decided not to pursue a PhD. I was turned off by the academia. It was almost as if we had to over-analyze what music was in order to rationalize the existence of a Masters program. If a PhD was going to be worse, I wanted no part of it. I'd like to be able to continue enjoying music!
It took a year before I found a career as an actuary. Ever since then, I've been struggling to find time to push my musical career. I still compose every now and then, but those moments are few. I've even won a finalist's mention twice in the Church's Annual music contest. If they didn't award the same people every year, I could possibly place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in a category, but I've given up hope on that contest.
When I moved to Charlotte, I joined the Singing Christmas Tree. That was a fun couple of years. One year, I accompanied the Jazzy Jingle Bells, and I had to run from the pit to the tree. If you watch the video, you can see one moment when I'm not on the tree, and then the next - I'm there right in the middle of the fourth row. How did I do that? (Just a little Christmas magic!)
After that, I spent a couple of years singing with the Charlotte Oratorio Singers. Now that was some serious singing. One of my favorite performances was Mozart's Requiem where I was standing near the end of stage. I got my wife and her girlfriend comp tickets near the front - just a few feet away from me. Hee hee hee!
In 2007, I wrote two minutes of music for an animated film. It's still up in the air whether or not they're actually going to use that music, but it was certainly a fun experience. Plus, it gave me an opportunity to record the two new mp3's I added to this website for Permutations and Storm Etude. More details to come when the movie's been released.