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 …
Category Archives: Music Education
Mom’s Ukulele
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 …
Seeing Sammy on TV
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 …
Singing with Sammy
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, …
Playing Folsom Prison Blues
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 …
Voice Lessons
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 …
Playing Music By Ear
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 …