My Story

When I was a child, I loved learning.  I was happy to learn new words and how to spell them. I competed in the school spelling bee.  I took pride in my school assignments, and I was always willing to please the teacher.  I loved language arts and social studies.  I showed initiative, and excelled at self-paced study.  I was at the top of my classes.

I have wanted to be a writer since I was nine years old.  I started a novel back then:  “The phone rang.”  It was going to tell the story about three buddies who went off to war and came back heroes.  The only professional experience I have had as a writer was a seven-week stint as Poet-in-Residence in the San Antonio Independent School District.  Writing poems or lyrics comes easily to me.  I’ve recently started a new novel called Resistless Day.  It’s about an expat who returns to the U.S. and undergoes major life changes and finds it difficult to face each coming day.

As a teenager I became enraptured with the Christian faith.  I read the Bible daily and believed that I was responsible for the souls of the whole world.  I was very serious and sincere. I went on to study theology at a Bible College and finished with a Biblical Studies degree at a Christian liberal arts college.  After working in a children’s ministry, I became disillusioned.  I left the ministry and never turned back.

Then I tried different things.  I did a stint in the U.S. Air Force as a personnel specialist.  I moved to Tennessee to trace my family roots and ended up working as a juvenile probation officer.  I tried making music in Florida.  I went home to help look after my father when he had heart surgery, and found my career at a standstill.  That’s when I ventured to northern Virginia and found work as a telecommunications engineer.

After a year at Global One, I transferred to the operations in Frankfurt, Germany.  I spent thirteen years based there, mostly as a freelancer, and I had rich and varied experiences during my European adventure.  I finally returned to the U.S. to avoid spending the rest of my life over there.

Now I am back in my own country.  I have worked as a hospital orderly, child evangelist, construction worker, dishwasher, strolling guitarist, singer, telecommunications engineer, juvenile probation officer, database specialist, poet, and housekeeping attendant.  I have visited more than 20 countries.  I speak four languages.  And I have had only the best of intentions.  I wanted to be a good student.  I wanted to tell stories.  I wanted to inspire and encourage people with music. I wanted to save the world.  I wanted to look after my father.  I wanted to open my heart and mind to other cultures.  I wanted to run my own business.  So what’s next?

I still would like to reach my goals.  I would like to be a professional writer.  I would like to sing regularly.  I would like to reach out to the world and inspire and encourage and help others.  I would like to continue my international adventures.  I am a man of the world.  And I have a lot to share.

Piano improvisation: The rules give us freedom

"Learn everything, then forget it all." - Charlie Parker

"Don't play what's there, play what's not there." - Miles Davis

"It has been said that the best improvised music sounds composed, and that the best composed music sounds improvised." -- www.apassion4jazz.net

Would you like to learn to play a song on the piano?  I am trying to understand something about piano improvisation.  We can work on these together.

The first thing to understand is that music is built on  mathematics. Let’s take the major scale of C.  Think of the note C as 1, D as 2, E as 3, and so on.  So what we learned in school as Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do can also be thought of as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-1.  Now let’s try to understand what a chord is.  A triad chord can be thought of as 1-3-5, or three notes that skip one note in between.  In the key of C, the C chord would be 1-3-5, or C-E-G.  The next chord over top of D would be 2-4-6, or D-F-A. The third chord would be 3-5-7, or E-G-B, and so on.  Now let’s have a look at these triads as you would see them on staff paper.

You will notice that the first, fourth, and fifth chords are major, the second, third, and sixth chords are minor, and the seventh chord is diminished.  Now let's see how these chords would look for both major and minor keys.

Would you like to learn how to play a song on piano very quickly?  Look at the first chord in the major scale.  That’s a C chord.  Play that on the piano.  It looks like this:

Now be clever and find the G note, then play the G chord:

With those two chords, you should now be able to play this easy song.  Just play the chords you learned and sing along.  The chords are written over top:

Oh, you're playing piano now?  Good for you.  Everyone should be able to play something.

Now let me get back to my issue.  I am working on improvisation.  This means knowing what to play over certain chords in a song. Here is an interesting link about improvising over chords.  When I’m playing a C chord or the Am chord, I can safely play the notes C, D, E, G, A.  With F or Dm, I can play F, G, A, C, D.  When I’m playing G or Em, I can play G, A, B, D, E.  With G7, I can play G, A, B, C, D, E, F.  On any of the triads in the scale, I can play the corresponding modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aolian, or Locrian).

Now, it is one thing to understand all this theory for improvisation, but it is another thing to make it happen. In theory if you understand the “rules” and are not afraid to experiment, you will eventually find that you can have freedom to explore and improvise within those boundaries.  When we see and hear someone who has great freedom in improvisation, it is very likely because they understand in some way the mathematics of the game.  Check out this page for more on jazz improvisation methods:  http://www.apassion4jazz.net/improv2.html.

When you get practiced up, see what you can do with this.  Have fun!

Here's another good link for you!  http://www.jazzstandards.com/index.html

Thanks for the Music: All of You

[You know who "you" are, but you can always reference the list at the bottom.]

I would like to thank you.  Something compelled you to do it.  You taught me the definition of legato and staccato.  You led my junior high choir (1).  You sang beautiful solos and duets and trios in church (2). You showed me how powerful worship music can be (3). You coached me and let me sing my first solos in public (4). You bought me my first guitar (5). You gave me my first guitar lesson (6). You led as I sang in my first big church choir (7).

Thanks so much.  You were so much fun as you led our college choir, and took me on my first choir tours (8). You taught me music theory and piano (which I never mastered, not your fault) (9). You taught me classical guitar (10).

You deserve credit.  You were the first “real” choir I joined, where I learned major classical pieces like Mozart’s Requiem, and enjoyed beautiful musical moments (11).  You led this wonderful choir, and let me sing Handel’s Messiah first as a bass and another year as a tenor (12).

And thanks for your help as I went solo.  You gave me my first solo gig as a weekly strolling guitarist on a mountain in Tennessee (13). You didn’t tell me I was crazy (though you must have thought it) when I went down to Florida to try to find opportunities to play music (14). 

And you were there when I was on the move.  I sang with you when I was working in northern Virginia (15). This was a rather quiet period.

But my thanks continue.  You were my favorite choir director, and you taught me subtlety in music (16).  You were so much fun to be with, and you learned the difficult parts and blended and made a wonderful sound (17). You opened up the world of early music, and you taught me that good singing was all in the easy release (18). You showed me that there was more than one choir director who knew how to finesse and shape the music, and you were the best organist I have ever met (19). 

And thanks for the great times!  You were the first guitarist I worked with, you showed me what it was like to rock the joint, and you worked the open mics with me (20).  You taught me the music of Buddy Holly and The Beatles, and you showed me what it’s like to exercise discipline in learning your favorite music (21). You showed how to make excellent recordings, and you stirred together your music and social and family life in a great way (22). You knew every song ever written, you could play them on anything with strings, and you sang them with reckless abandon (23). You taught me Bossa Nova chords and rhythm, and showed virtuoso skill on the guitar (24). You blindly played piano better than any sighted man I know, and taught me that it should all be about having fun (25).  You played banjo with your claw better than anyone I’ve seen (26).  You pulled the guitar off the wall and turned the room into a magical place (27).

Thanks for all you have done.  You learned the difficult parts.  You watched the choir director.  You took cues from the pianist.  You sang the old tunes (28). You jammed with the band.  You played by ear.  You read all the notes (29). You loved us through your music.  You touched our hearts and saved our souls. You taught me that music is common to all of life, that there is a “music of the spheres” that brings into symmetry all the disparate and confusing aspects of our troublesome existence.  You showed us that la musica es la vida, that we would be lost without it, that it blesses and enriches our lives in ways that could never be understood (30).

Thanks for the music.  My life would not be the same without you.  We are notes on a page, you and I, sometimes getting closer, sometimes stretching farther apart, and yet sounding out to form the harmonies of life.  Sometimes we echo nature, and sometimes nature echoes us.  The mathematics and the physics of music could be measured by scientific instruments, but those devices could never capture the true nature of the sounds that we hear and make.  We are instruments, you and I.  Thanks for making music with me.  And don’t you know, there’s so much more wonderful music ahead!

(1) Mrs. Irvine Parsons.  (2) Judy Smith. (3) The choir of Faith Baptist Church.  (4) Virginia “Aunt Ginny” Wright. (5) My parents. (6) A student at TSBC whose name I forgot. (7)  Lucky Shepherd.  (8) “Prof” Don Ogden.  (9) What was the music professor’s  name? (10) A professor from the English department.  (11) Texas Bach Choir. (12)  Dr. Finster.  (13) The lady at the bed and breakfast in Monteagle, TN. (14) My family. (15) Loudoun County Master Singers. (16) Kathleen Bird. (17) CTK choir. (18) Edmund Brownless. (19) Simon Harden. (20) Dan Carter. (21) Bob Crook. (22) Angus Foxley. (23) Paul Kachur. (24) Marcos Saback. (25) Jogi Kirschner. (26)  Don Lupo. (24)  Anita at Balalaika.  (28) All the singers.  (29) All the players. (30) All my fellow musicians and music lovers.

Thoughts from the Ivory Tower

Music is a way to connect to people.  There have been countless times that I have lingered in a social situation, keeping my thoughts to myself, too aloof or disregarded to join the conversation – until I had the chance to sing.  Music can be an ice-breaker for me.  When I sing I am able to loosen up, to release energy, to reach out to people, and often it opens opportunities for new friendships and interesting conversations.  Music can alter the mood in a room and bring people together.

Writing helps me to connect in other ways, although it is often one-sided.  Sometimes I will write in my journal, and I am able to connect to my inner self in new ways.  Writing to others in emails is a way to connect to friends and family.  Poetry is a way to communicate vague ideas and deep emotions.  This blog is an attempt to reach out, to communicate.  Many times I feel vulnerable when writing for others.  I am often convinced that almost no one is interested in what I have to write, and ultimately, they are not interested in me.  And often I feel ignored.  I would almost rather be criticized than ignored.  I wonder if I should shout with a louder voice.

It almost seems weak to say that I would like to connect with others in writing and song – as if I need people.  If a tree falls in the wilderness, does anyone hear it?  I have much to express, and I believe that sometimes I can express it very well. I would be thrilled to have someone to reach out in this direction, to write something thoughtful and responsive and interesting back.  I read about the lives of great men of history and literature that they have written long and deliberative letters to acquaintances, and they – shock, shock – have received similar replies.

I perceive the world in a different way than I experience it.  I expect there to be interesting and serious discourse.  But I look around and see and hear crass culture:  on television, on the radio, in public places.  Maybe I should be in an ivory tower.  There I could write my letters and sing my songs and pass my days in reflection.  But it just wouldn’t be any fun to be in the ivory tower alone.

Music to Expand the Soul and Bless the Inner Life

I've made a breakthrough with my piano playing.  I've been working on jazz standards for 16 months with piano.  I had played basic chords for many years, but then last year I had two lessons from a friend of my sisters -- a very good pianist with a masters in piano performance -- and he helped me with piano voicings.  I wrote out the arrangements I would use for several songs, and developed a certain technique.  The aim was to keep the finger movements to a minimum, to keep everything tight.  I struggled through my first public performance last May (at the Balalaika), but I got through it.  Since starting this project, I've worked up over 100 standards, and I'm learning more every day.  I love it!  I've got plenty of songs by Rodgers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Jimmy Van Heusen, and others.  This is a real treasure trove of music!


So here's my breakthrough:  I had been plugging away on piano in my little room near Raleigh, NC, for several weeks.  And all of a sudden the other day I started moving up and down the keyboard on some piano solos.  Wow!  I try to keep everything in the chord, and definitely avoid going out of the key, and then go back to the melody notes from time to time, especially at the end of a phrase.  I figured that I could leave out the root from the right hand since I was playing it with the left.  And now I'm just amazed how this is working! After all these months, my fingers are finding the melody (I can remember how hard that was before) and playing notes around it.  And this is coming naturally.  I think it's a matter of time spent at the piano.

For those of you who have been improvising on your instrument for years, you may not think much of this.  And those of you who don't play at all may think that playing an instrument will be forever out of reach.  But I say that for all of us, learning musical skills is a way for us to improve our lives in so many different ways. The struggles bring out the best in us, and when we finally master some skill that has eluded us, we can bask in the joys of our newfound selves.

I really want to write books and sing songs all the time. I will keep spending time doing these things.  I wish I didn't have to worry about the money.  I have centered my life around making money for so many years, and despite the things that money has provided me, it has left me with a certain emptiness and longing. They say you only live once.  Why not a life filled with music?  As music expands and develops in our lives, so does our inner being. We grow with every new song, every improved skill, every development in sensibility.

My friend Marcos_Saback, an amazing guitarist now back in Brazil, talks about "la vida" as he drinks red wine.  La musica es la vida.  Let us raise our glasses, and allow the wonder of music to create a life of joy and beauty within our souls.