There is not a moment in my life that I can recall when I wasn't surrounded by music. Before me, my parents worked at a record store. I remember one of the first things I ever learned was how to put a record on a turn table without scratching it. There was a wall in the house I grew up in that had shelves full of vinyl. Hundreds, if not thousands, of records always playing. Beatles, Talking Heads, Bob Dylan, Beethoven, Ministry, you name it. So, to put it mildly, I grew up engulfed by music.
I grew, and developed an interest on learning a musical instrument, specifically the Drums. My Mom agreed, but insisted that first I must take a year or so of Piano studio. At my age then, and due to the already constant ridicule from other kids my age at school, I thought the Piano was for girls and didn't want to give more fodder for my so called "peers." You see, I struggled in school. Being diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHA, I had a label to help describe why that was. It was a "learning disability." So, in my young mind, it was an excuse that I could tell myself. But my Mom was dissatisfied with that. She taught me to use music to help me in my studies. Using my talent of hearing a song once and being able to repeat it back, she taught me how to memorize my spelling words with melodies. It helped, but barley.
It wasn't until I saw the movie, "Great Balls of Fire" that I decided I wanted to play the Piano. Let me rephrase that. I wanted to play like Jerry Lee Lewis. I wanted people losing their minds as I played. I wanted girls throwing themselves at me because I could play like that. And it was then that I developed a crush on Winona Ryder. So I told my parents I wanted to learn how to play the Piano.
I started late, in comparison to other kids I would later compete against. Eleven. After two years of lessons I started taking Drums, but still kept the Piano as my main instrument. After three years, I auditioned for the Piano department at LVA, the performing arts magnet school here in Las Vegas, and was accepted. It was there I feel I truly came into the beginning of who I am today. (how many times can you refer to yourself in one sentence?) I started as a freshman with three years of piano study playing with and against kids who have been playing since they were two, and I was holding my own too.
Now, the transition from originally wanting to play rock-n-roll to wanting to play classical goes thusly:
The year before LVA, when I was still in Jr high, I was learning the Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No 2 Mvt 1 by Beethoven, more popularly known as "The Moonlight Sonata," and I couldn't wrap my head around it. I didn't understand why it was going the way it was, why it moved the way it did. And it wasn't until my Mother sat me down and told me that Beethoven was deff, and this was the sound of his pain not being able to hear. I know now know that he could still hear when he wrote that music, but the idea of bringing an emotion to sound fascinated me. It still does. And then the wanting to learn how to play became a need.
So, at 11 years old: I was reading and doing math about two grades lower than the rest of kids my age, the other subjects were not that much better. I start taking Piano lessons and excel at it. Fast forward to my senior year of High School, I am taking college level English classes, and an honors level Math (I would have been in an AP math class but I had too many tours, music competitions, concerts and rehearsals that took up much of my time), and I was double majoring in Piano Performance and Percussion Performance. I got into college, a feet I never thought possible before I started Piano lessons. Not only did I think I could get into college, I never thought I would be good enough at anything to study it in depth. But at the dear ol' U of R, I took the opportunity to study Piano at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Pretty bad ass, right? You tell my younger self that was going to happen and he would have laughed at you.
As I grew in my music skills, I fell in love with theory and composing. I was still fascinated with the idea of translating emotion into sound. So I graduated from college with a BM in Music Studies, emphasizing in Piano Performance, Percussion Performance, and Music Theory/Composition.
Let us move up to today, and the reason I am starting this blog.
Since graduating from college I have had surgery on both of my arms due to cubital tunnel syndrome. I cannot play the big Rachmaninov and Chopin works like I use. My arms don't have it in them like they use to, not yet anyhow. Instead of falling and feeling sorry for myself, I turn to my composing. I feel like now, with a little bit of real life under my belt, I can translate my emotion into music.
My wife, my inspiration, suggested that I start this blog to talk in depth about the compositions I am currently working on. The places that they originate. To tell you, the listener, what it is exactly that the composition means to me.
I started this with a history of how I got here (a little in sight, if you will), to let you know what music has done for me. I will continue to compose, with or with out bad arms, and I hope this gives a little more understanding on how I do it.
Now if you will excuse me, I am going to my Piano (Winona) and translate some more.
