Piano Lessons in Aurora, CO

Instruments: Piano Saxophone Flute Clarinet Drums Synthesizer Piccolo Mallet Percussion Orchestral Percussion Oboe Bassoon English Horn Keyboard

When did you decide to become a professional musician? Was it a gradual decision or was there a defining moment for you?
It was definitely a gradual decision for me to "go pro," as it were. I always loved music, but two things were holding me back. First, I didn't think I was good enough. There are lots of great musicians out there, with not enough gigs to go around for everyone. Second, by the time I was midway through high school I'd already met many jaded, dark, disgruntled professional musicians, and I didn't want that to happen to me. There are certainly many headaches in this business, and I was afraid they'd carry over to the music itself to where I'd simply start hating music. College helped with that. A jazz quartet I played in at Hope played lots of professional gigs, and later at the Univeristy of South Florida I had so many gigs I actually left college with more money than I started with! This proved to me that I was, in fact, good enough. And I was loving it! Twenty-five years after college, I'm still lovin' it. I'm still baffled why jaded, dark, disgruntled musicians don't simply quit and do something else - life is too short. Music is certainly a difficult way to make a living, but it's been extremely rewarding for me.

If you play more than one instrument, how did you decide to start playing the second? (Or 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc)!
I started on pipe organ, believe it or not! We had a toy version in the house, and my babysitter actually played organ (what are the odds?), so she got me started. Piano was a natural addition a few years later. In 4th grade when the instrument "petting zoo" came to my school, I almost chose oboe because no one else was playing it - which isn't such a bad reason to pick a particular instrument, actually. But the Chicago Bears had jut won the Super Bowl that year, and they made a video called the "Super Bowl Shuffle," donating the proceeds to charity. One of the players played a sax solo (I'm sure he was lip-syncing over the studio musician), and my mom just about swooned when she said "oh, saxophone is a magical instrument for me!" That was it - sax for me! The other woodwinds follow naturally if you're a sax player. Most college or pro-level big band charts include some doubling on flute and clarinet, so sax players need a minimum level of competency to play those tunes. Oboe and bassoon are less common, but one of my most favorite things to do is play in Broadway-style pit orchestras, where those instruments are definitely included from time to time along with the others. It's not uncommon to see a "Reed 3" book which has tenor sax, clarinet, oboe and english horn (basically a larger oboe) all built into the same part! I got serious about percussion in high school because I had a goal to play in a DCI top-12 drum corps, which I achieved in college! I tried a brass instrument first, but I never got very good. But percussion is actually a fairly natural addition for piano players, especially mallet instruments like xylophone and vibraphone which are set up like a piano. I got to be a good singer in college, taking lessons and touring Europe with Hope College's Chapel Choir, their flagship group. I've since sung lead and backup in rock and country bands, as well as directing church choirs. Every musician should learn how to sing, at least a little bit. Accordion is actually not too dissimilar from piano. The right hand is in fact a piano keyboard, while the left hand plays bass lines and chords, not unlike the toy organ I started on when I was little. When I started playing in Air Force rock bands, I needed something portable that didn't rely on electricity for our more intimate, "unplugged" gigs. Accordion is a beautiful, artistic instrument which is unfairly the butt of too many musical jokes. And it works on way more rock/pop tunes than you might think!

Does music run in your family? Tell us a little about your musical family members.
Both of my brothers played through college, and one of them does it for a living like I do. Both of them were also in top-12 DCI Drum Corps like I was: one on percussion, one on brass (euphonium). My parents, while very supportive and encouraging with lessons, instruments, and band trips, are not musical themselves. It just wasn't something their parents did with them, I suppose. That said, I have five kids, all of whom play instruments in every family. Between the seven of us, I believe we play seventeen different instruments! It's a noisy, chaotic household, and I love it. I'm always playing duets, trios, quartets, etc. with members of my family.

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