Category: Music Education

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… Continue reading Trombone

My mom had a ukulele that sat in a shelf the headboard of my parent’s bed.  The headboard had the shelf and two sliding doors on either side of this shelf for storage.  I thought of it as a little guitar decoration for their bedroom and not a legitimate musical instrument.  At some point when… Continue reading Mom’s Ukulele

In my previous posts, I talked about singing with my cousin Sammy and that he was an outstanding singer.  He won the youth talent contest at the Mid-South Fair in Memphis one year singing How Great Thou Art.  Because he won this contest, he got to travel to New York City and perform on a… Continue reading Seeing Sammy on TV

My cousin Sammy lived next door to us.  Sammy has an outstanding voice.  I mentioned in an earlier post that Sammy and I sang together around the house and occasionally at church.  Sammy was several years older than me.  When we first started singing together, my mom played piano for us.  In a few years,… Continue reading Singing with Sammy

I was 6 years old when Johnny Cash’s live album At Folsom Prison was released. While it was my parents’ album, I listened to it almost all the time.  Folsom Prison Blues isn’t a kid’s song, but it became one of my favorites. At the time, I wasn’t playing the piano.  Mom might have started… Continue reading Playing Folsom Prison Blues

Shortly after I started first grade, I started taking voice lessons from a teacher in town named Joe Kincaid.  “Mr. Joe” had a lot of students that had success in talent shows at the Mid-South Fair in Memphis. My cousin Sammy was one of his success stories.  Sammy lived next door to us, and we… Continue reading Voice Lessons

My mom was a piano teacher.  In my earliest memories, there was a piano in our living room. I remember kids coming to our house in the afternoon to take lessons. My mom sat in a rocker next to the piano as her students played their weekly assignments. If they did well enough, they would… Continue reading Playing Music By Ear