Music

If you look at my profile, you'll see that one of my interests is music. That includes both listening to and playing music, but I would say that I love playing it much more than just about anything in the world. I started playing when I was young, and I started on the piano. My mom taught lessons for a long time, and so she also started me and my brothers playing. When I got to Junior High School, I took up the clarinet, and continued that on through High School. Around the same time, I started to play harmonica because of a man at my church.

Right around the time I started High School, I got it into my head that I wanted to play guitar. I don't remember quite how this happened, but I got the bug. I soon started to play at my church, probably one of the best things I could've done to improve my playing. My church at the time didn't really have any worship practice, it was just getting there early on Sunday morning, getting the music and maybe getting a bit of time to practice. That method will really get basic chording and rhythm down. I also bought a book called "The Rock Guitar Bible," around the same time. It probably wasn't the best book to get, but it did teach me the blues/rock pentatonic scale, power chords, harmonics, and major and minor scales.

Soon, I started composing my own music, mostly instrumental stuff, but also a Christmas song of sorts which I ended up calling "Freedom Draft." It wasn't the best of songs, but it was good for a first try, and it's chorus got stuck in everyone's heads. One of my aunts heard me playing it at my parents' house once and said it sounded like a Larry Norman song, something I took as a big compliment. I haven't really written any lyrical music since, except for a few personal songs to God, but I have composed a number of instrumentals. I never feel that I'm very good at writing lyrics.

When I was in high school, I also sang in the choir at school, and at a community choir with my grandpa. In the school choir, we sang the National Anthem for a number of sporting events, and also some pieces for special events, but it was only a small school, so most of the other students weren't very interested. One of the pieces we sang was a classical piece called, I think, "Dona, Nobis, Pacem," but my choir director always joked about the name and called it "Donuts, Roastbeef, Pasta." The teacher was always joking around. I did go to solo/ensemble with some vocal pieces and clarinet pieces. I actually sang a duet with a girl I had a slight crush on. Everything went all right with all my performance pieces, but nothing really seemed to be outstanding. I just didn't practice much of anything when I was in high school, something I'm still working on. That's still a problem I'm working on.

Vocally, the community choir was much more challenging for me. We sang pieces from Handel's Messiah for Easter and for Christmas. I learned quite a bit from those pieces, and still love the Messiah today. In fact, I've always wanted to arrange some pieces for a guitar ensemble, but just haven't made my do it. We also sang some choral jazz pieces from some classic movies and musicals, also a good challenge. I'll always value what I learned at that choir. I also will always value the time I had there with my grandpa, who's now dead.

Once I got to college, I still kept up with my guitar, but that was about it. I still had my clarinet, but I didn't really play it at all, and I still had my harmonicas. I guess I played my harmonicas a bit, so my first statement isn't exactly true. Once I got involved in a church (Blackhawk Church), which didn't take too long, I started playing there. It's actually the same church I now attend, but it's worship structure was much different then, and there were far fewer people attending. Right around the time I was leaving, they were starting to change the worship format, adding an evening service with more contemporary music.

When I left Madison, I went to Georgia and lived with my parents for a year. At their church, I continued playing in the worship team, but also added the worship for youth group. While I was there, I was a volunteer youth leader. That was also where I picked up my next instrument: the bass guitar. There was a need for a bass player, and there were probably more than enough people to play acoustic/electric guitars, so I just started to play. It was fairly easy, since the bass is set up like the lower notes of a guitar, but people also tell me that I've got a nack for it. I have to praise God for that, because it seems music is my one obvious gift.

In Georgia, I also started to practice a bit on my little brother's drum set, and so learned some basic rhythms. I still can't do fills well, but I've got those basic rhythms down.

Recently, I've come back a bit to the keys, and played at the youth group down in Georgia, and here during practices in Madison. I still haven't played on a Sunday, but who knows what will happen.

That's about all I can tell right now about my music. Maybe I'll remember more later, but you can see that it's a big part of my life.