When it comes to music I'm a Jack of All Trades; give me a horn and I will toot it.
I started piano lessons when I was five years old and in just six short months my teacher fired me! Yeah... I never practiced because I didn't want to study flash cards and theory, I just wanted to play. Luckily, when I was 13 we moved to a neighborhood that introduced me to music in a whole new way. |
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Every Friday night my neighbors gathered around a campfire with guitars, fiddles, a washtub bass, the list goes on. If you could make noise with it you could bring it. That world taught me how similar instruments are and how quickly you can pick up something new (and play by ear without ever using pesky/boring flash cards).
I played oboe at school, but because oboes don't march I quickly picked up clarinet and pit instruments (marimba, xylophone, etc.). I found a group of awesomely cool nerds like me and I soared. By my senior year I was head drum major of my marching band, I sang in the top three choirs, and I was ranked second of all the high school oboists in Texas. I continued studying music at LSU in Baton Rouge and got a Masters from the Cincinnati Conservatory, but my heart wasn't in playing the oboe. To this day I will play as many instruments as I can get ahold of but my main loves are things that let me sing - ukulele, guitar, keyboard, and my trusty looper.
I've played in a bunch of cover bands over the years - singing, guitar, ukulele, bass, drums, keyboard, synth, sax, trumpet, and I even used a DJ app to mix samples live from my iPad. My solo a cappella covers on a looper are both impressive and ridiculous and have earned shoutouts from Nikki Minaj and Leslie Jones.
I played oboe at school, but because oboes don't march I quickly picked up clarinet and pit instruments (marimba, xylophone, etc.). I found a group of awesomely cool nerds like me and I soared. By my senior year I was head drum major of my marching band, I sang in the top three choirs, and I was ranked second of all the high school oboists in Texas. I continued studying music at LSU in Baton Rouge and got a Masters from the Cincinnati Conservatory, but my heart wasn't in playing the oboe. To this day I will play as many instruments as I can get ahold of but my main loves are things that let me sing - ukulele, guitar, keyboard, and my trusty looper.
I've played in a bunch of cover bands over the years - singing, guitar, ukulele, bass, drums, keyboard, synth, sax, trumpet, and I even used a DJ app to mix samples live from my iPad. My solo a cappella covers on a looper are both impressive and ridiculous and have earned shoutouts from Nikki Minaj and Leslie Jones.