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As all the kids in my family were required to do, I started piano lessons when
I was 7 years old. I didn't like. I didn't like practicing, I didn't like playing.
It just wasn't my bag. My older sister was far more accomplished and certainly
the more respected. She wanted to be a concert pianist and would attend competitions
playing things like Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" (Opus 27, #2).
I would always rather play my own compositions and style which was largely frowned
upon. In junior high I worked out a deal with my parents that if I joined the band
and played something else I could stop taking piano lessons. So, I became a
drummer. I played snare in the marching band but when it came to the orchestral
settings I would be the one to play the tuned percussion because I understood
it and could tune the timpanis on the fly during a piece. I eventually got bored
with that and would later play trumpet and flute in the band as well. Finally,
they made me drum major. Yes, I was a band geek. When my older sister left for college I convinced my parents to sell the concert
grand they had purchased for her and use some of the proceeds to buy me some
keyboards. My first setup was a Yamaha DX7 with TX81Z tone generator, RX5 drum
machine and QX5 sequencer. I was styling. I played that and had a band (with
no name) that was me and another guy. We would have been the next Pet Shop Boys.
Maybe I'll put up some of our songs on this site some day. I went to college still interested in music. I took a number of music theory
and composition classes. I filled notebooks with songs and ideas. I really wanted
to write a through composed musical (ala "Les Miserables" or "Phantom
of the Opera" or something). Eventually, I got a job, got married and the
music fell by the side. I'm not sure where it happened but it did. The funny thing was that it hadn't in a way. I had started a software company
and at a convention for that I won Sonic
Foundry's Acid program and found myself wasting time with that. In fact,
I would spend a ton of time making stuff and consider it wasteful. You can check
out a lot of my songs here. Only after I went with Ken to meet Jason just as a ride along and was asked
to sit in with the band on keys did I realize how much music had been there
all along and I had been ignoring it. After I "officially" joined
the band there was no bass player but there was a bass guitar so I played it
one week and really enjoyed it. I bought my own the next day and started practicing.
It seems to have worked out OK. While I've had no formal training on bass I
do at least have my own style - the style of a piano player playing bass guitar.
I will never be Flea but I
have learned to accept that. 
