I decided after hearing a piano player named Keith Green, that I wanted to play like he did. I heard him play notes that made me feel so much that I wanted to make other people feel that way as well. So, I, at age 14, bought a chord book, a very inexpensive Casio keyboard, and started practicing to learn the piano. I would put on the headphones and play along with one finger the melodies of the songs on the radio. Then after about six months of learning chords on the piano, mixed with being able to play by ear, I was able to play songs on the piano. My Mom was so happy cause she really likes the piano, as was my Dad.
In the next couple of years, I would spend my free time in my room with headphones on learning all kinds of songs, from Elton John to U2, to Metallica, to Worship music on the piano. I couldn't stop playing. It was my teenage escape, but what I didn't know, was it would lead to some pretty amazing things in my life. Again, music mixed with the choices i've made has moved me here and there in small ways and gargantuan ways. I was always trying to learn what those huge artists had done with the notes, how they had taken the music somewhere no one had ever done before, and I knew that I wanted that more than anything. So, my desire grew and I wasn't just interested in sticking with one instrument (the piano), when music itself is so much more, I bought a nylon string guitar from my friend Rhiannon (yes, she was named after the song). I started to listen to any music with acoustic guitar in it and bought my chord book and learned all my chords over the next couple of years. My Mom wasn't as happy about the guitar as she was about the Piano. I think her exact words were, "Steven, you are talented and gifted at the piano, not at guitar". I would laugh and say, Mom, music is the gift. We still laugh about that. Anyway, the next progressive step in my search and my pursuit of this thing was to write my own songs. The first song I ever wrote was to my two youth pastors who were leaving to go to Church far far away. It was a tribute and a thank you for their mentoring me. It wasn't a very good song, but it was from the heart, which is what music should be first and foremost. My second song was for my first girlfriend. Again, not a great song, but again, truly from the heart. I believe that music should be felt, that an emotion should be conveyed, whether it be happiness, sadness, joy, peace, passion, hope. These are what music means to me. I will continue this rant again soon. Thanks for following and listening.
