Starting in high school and though college, I had more opportunities to play at weddings and other events where I had to play songs on piano where I wasn’t just accompanying myself singing. Sometimes these were instrumentals where I could cheat and play in a more comfortable key. Other times, I was playing for someone else to sing. When that was the case, it was more important to play in the correct key. This was always a challenge.
Through junior high and high school, I continued to perform in a variety of situations. I would sing with my cousin Sammy, play organ for beauty pageants, and accompany myself on piano at church and occasional talent shows at school. I rarely played anything that challenged me to expand my skills. I was mainly getting more comfortable with performing. I continued to play almost everything in the key of F. If they just needed me to play without singing, I needed to play on an organ so I could play a melody. My piano skills didn’t include being able to play the melody, only provide accompaniment and usually that was only good for me to sing. Then my cousin Glenda asked me to play at her wedding.
My brother-in-law expressed an interest in going to Graceland with me. He’s been my brother-in-law for 37 years and I’ve been going to Graceland for 21 of those years. The time for him to go was long overdue. My wife and I planned to take his girlfriend and him to Graceland for his birthday in November. Because of various trips and celebrations, our trip was delayed until February 19. All my other visits to Graceland have been in August except for one in March of 2017. Although this would be my first winter visit to Graceland, it was sunny and warm enough that I considered leaving home without a jacket. A brisk breeze quickly let me know that the jacket was mandatory. My first piece of advice for a winter trip to Graceland is take a coat or jacket. You will be outside more than you might think. This includes a walk from the parking lot to the visitors’ center, walking between the buildings behind the mansion, walking from the visitors center to the planes, standing at the grave site and waiting on shuttle buses going back and forth to the mansion.
There were several times when I was growing that mom started teaching me piano. I wouldn’t practice as often as I should, and I never made it very far into the lesson books to anything advanced. At some point, mom negotiated with Mrs. Dean Norville to give my sister and I piano lessons and in return, she would give lessons to “Miss Dean’s” girls. This seemed to be a better plan for getting me to practice and learn something that I would use the rest of my life.
While I was able to play songs on the organ and accompany myself singing on the piano, there were still limitations to what I was able to play. My dirty secret was that I only knew how to play songs in the key of F. I think part of this was due to the way the pedals were on the organ. The organ had a limited range of pedals, usually an octave going from C to C. I would typically use an F-C bass line when playing an F chord and it just felt like the organ was made to play in this key. Of course, I was just playing what sounded and felt good. I had no idea what key I was playing in.
The exception to this rule was when I was playing a song in a minor chord. It felt most natural to play these songs in D minor.
My mom developed a close relationship with the owners of the music store where she bought sheet music and lesson books for her piano students. At one point, she worked out a deal with them where they placed an electric organ in our house for demonstration purposes. If someone came to our house and ended up buying an organ from the music store, mom would get a commission. I don’t think she sold that many organs, but it was a nice way for us to be able to have an organ in our house before we bought one.
As I was growing up, I continued to pick around on the piano. Occasionally, my mom would start giving me lessons, but I never stuck with them for very long. I wasn’t disciplined enough to stick with practicing the easy songs that were necessary to develop skills needed to play more complicated music. When I was sitting at the piano, I was more likely to experiment with doing things that sounded more like a real song.
I don’t know where my first guitar came from. I suspect that my mom got it from the music store where she bought sheet music when she gave piano lessons. I remember getting a Mel Bay guitar instruction book that showed some simple instructions and chords. As with most other instruments, I would teach myself how to play. But I wouldn’t take to the guitar as easily as I did either the ukulele or the baritone ukulele. For both the ukes, I always played chords. And on all the chords, I would strum all the strings. On guitar, you don’t always strum all strings when playing chords. I found it difficult to only hit the strings that needed to be played.
I have spent too much time at Graceland to not be affected by the death of Lisa Marie Presley. It’s not lost on me that any time that I’ve toured the house, I’ve been touring HER house. She inherited that estate. From what I’ve seen, the family would still use this property for private family functions, especially around the holidays. Her mother’s involvement in the business helped to make it successful. And I am thankful to Lisa Marie for allowing this to be what has become a big part of my life.
I had my first experience in band in the 5th grade. I played trombone. I don’t remember why I played trombone. It wasn’t like I wanted to play the trombone. I remember that the trombone that I played was provided by the school. I don’t think I was never excited about the trombone, but I didn’t dislike it either. When I was in 5th grade, I still had the same teacher all day instead of changing classes. It seems like band was something thrown in at an odd time of day and not on a regular schedule. It seemed like a half-hearted attempt at starting an elementary school band program.