My grandmother, as I have mentioned in a past post, was the organist at our church. She also had an organ in her house, and as long as I can remember, my sister and I would climb up on that bench and play around on it. When Dayna was around 9 or 10 (I think) and I was 6 or 7, my grandmother wanted very much for my sister to learn how to play the piano and paid for her to take lessons with a local piano teacher. At one point, we even had an old upright for my sister to practice on. Well, as it happens, my sister hated it. She didn't like the teacher very much and really didn't like to practice. After my sister would finish up (not) practicing, I would sit and play for hours and hours. I loved it. But I could barely read words, let alone learn how to read music. But I loved playing around on a piano. From those days on, I never could pass a piano without trying to play it. That was the beginning of me learning how to play by ear.
I always had a finely tuned ear. My dad loves to tell stories about how we would be in the car or watching a movie and little Cory would pipe up "Did you hear that trumpet make a mistake?!" or "That guy isn't singing on key"...picture that coming from a little 7 or 8 year old. Obnoxious right? Well...many of you have seen it from this almost 30 year old and it's probably just as obnoxious...haha.
In any case, I continued to play around on any piano I could get my hands on, but never had a formal lesson. Eventually, around 2nd or 3rd grade or so, I started to teach myself how to read music. All of this was a very slow process, but I really enjoyed learning. I remember the first song I learned to play (one-handed of course) was "My Country Tis of Thee" and my music teacher, Mrs. Joy, had me play it front of my whole 3rd grade class!
Mrs. Joy...or just Joy as she is known now, was the single biggest influence in my musical-ness. She was my music teacher from Kindergarten all the way until I graduated High School and remains a good friend today.
Joy was constantly encouraging me and teaching me and pushing me when it came to music. Some time around 4th grade, she put all of the instruments that our school's concert band played out in her class room and had us try them all out to see if we were interested in learning any of them. Most of the kids wanted to play the drums, but I immediately knew that I wanted to play the trumpet. I couldn't make any sound out of it then, but I knew I really liked it. Mainly because I loved John Williams, who always relied heavily on the trumpet section =)
At some point in 5th grade, Joy got it in her head that I could sing. I guess she was eavesdropping on my during music class...the nerve. Anywho, that December, she decided that my best friend Andrew and I were going to sing "O Holy Night" in that years Christmas Pageant. I was petrified! We had to rehearse in front of the whole elementary school and then perform in front of half the island!:
The headline of the newspaper clip is "Whew!" because either Andrew or I made the exclamation directly into the microphone right after our performance.
Well, that was pretty much the first and last time I sang in public for years and years...in spite of Joy's best attempts.
6th grade was when I was finally able to enter "Beginning Band" and really learn how to play the trumpet. My dad also like to brag on me some more and tell people: The first day he was making noise, the second day he was making music. And there is a little bit of truth to that because I picked up the trumpet very quickly. Most likely because I practiced for hours and hours...and not begrudgingly. Well, maybe to my parents and neighbors dismay, but I would come home from school, pick up my trumpet and play. If I wanted to be outside, I would walk around outside, with my trumpet, and play. It was only about 3 months in beginning band before me and my friend Andrew, once again, were asked by Joy to move up into the High School band. Talk about intimidating and awesome all at the same time. Well, we did it and played with the High School concert band at their first concert that December. I remained in the High School band from 6th grade until I graduated.
I was in the music room as much and as often as I could be from 6th grade on as well. I would stay after school and play around on the piano or with a few of my friends in band. I loved every minute of it. I was sure that music was going to be my career. I either wanted to be a music teacher like Joy or play in a band professionally. By 9th grade, I had been asked to play the organ in my church and I did that for the remaining 4 years of high school. My senior year, I only needed one class to graduate, but I still had to have a full schedule, so I worked with my guidance counselor to have my one English class along with Independent Study Music Appreciation and to be a student assistant for a music class. That meant my final semester of senior year I had my one English class then spent the rest of the day in the music room...it was awesome!
Going into college, I continued to play the trumpet in the concert band for two years and was in the piano practice rooms almost every night. I was a music major at least 3 times before I landed on Computer Information Systems...haha. I didn't much like the almost completely classical nature of our music program and all of the time it took to be a music major.
While in college, one of the best decisions I ever made was to join our Gospel Choir. I had always liked singing, but like I said...performing without a group in front of people wasn't my thing. The great thing about Gospel Choir was, it really helped to train my ear and helped me to hone my skill of harmonizing...something I ALWAYS do. (I used to harmonize with the vacuum cleaner when I was little). It also helped me to meet some of my best friends ever. I was surrounded by musical-minded people all throughout college and to this day, when we get together, we love love love to sing. Here is a video of Appalachian's Gospel Choir. This was the year after I left, but we used to sing this song when I was in it:
We didn't have those dancer when I was in choir...not my idea.
Gospel choir, singing, and music in general got me through some of the toughest times in my life. Whenever I was going through some stuff...I would put a lot of focus on music. And I started to sing more and more. Here is a group of my friends and I singing:
Then I moved to the DC area. I'm not sure what really happened in DC that made me all of a sudden more comfortable with singing in public...but it did. And then Ashlee and I met and the rest is musical history. We started singing together all the time. We started to make regular trips to NYC to sing in piano bars and found that we knew each other's voices really well...so duets became the reg.
I happen to have on video, the first time I ever sang a solo in public with just a piano. This is "Somewhere That's Green" from Little Shop of Horrors. The pianist is the amazing Nate Buccieri and this was the first night I ever met him in the iconic piano bar Don't Tell Mama. He has become my favorite pianist in New York and a good friend. I've never posted this video for many reasons. One...the bar noise makes it hard to hear. Two...I mess up a lot (like singing a verse twice in a row). Three...I can sing much better than this. Four...I'm covering a female song and really ham it up and it annoys me to watch myself. Actually, my favorite part about this video is how much Nate and I flirt and Lio and "the broads" as we called them that were next to us. Blah Blah...here it is:
Here Nate and I are a few years later singing "I'll Cover You" from Rent and The Duplex in NYC. I normally sing the lower part, but Nate never gets to sing it, so I braved the part that was too high for me (and go horribly flat in some parts):
The whole point of this blog was to try to give just the tiniest glimpse into how important music is to me. Some folks think it's a little strange, how often Ashlee and I will go out per week to sing a song or two, but for me, and I think for her, it's a form of therapy. We love to sing and we love when people enjoy hearing us sing. (Yeah, it's true. Sometimes we're divas). But really it's just about the joy of music.
I am nowhere near where I want to be musically though. I always tell people that I'm not a fan of my own voice, but I still enjoy to sing. I'm not looking to be famous by it, just enjoy it and hope that there's a few people out there who like to hear me sing. And I'm not fishing for compliments at all...there's a good many people whom don't like the way I sing and that's fine. There's a good many people whom don't like Adele's voice either and we're like...vocal twins. ;-) But for some reason, when it comes to singing and DEFINITELY when it comes to playing the piano...I always feel like a bit of a phony. I can't explain it really and I've tried to many times, but there are often times that I feel like I'm fooling people with my musical talents. Sure, to someone who doesn't sing or play the piano, it may sound amazing! But I anytime one of my friends or family says: "And he sings and is amazing at the piano" I always want to counter with "I'm ok, but nowhere as good as...." My one point of pride with the piano is that I'm self taught. Sure, I had people help hone my skills or offer advice, but I've never taken a piano lesson. And I think that's pretty cool
In any case, no matter what I think about my abilities and talents and no matter what you or anybody else thinks about my abilities and talents...I love it. And I'm not going to stop. So get used to it kids.
I will leave you with a video of the live performance that I am most proud of thus far. If you watched ANY of the singing videos above...please watch this one so that you can see that I can actually sing sometimes.
This is at my dear friends Joey and Jason's wedding. I rearranged and pre-recorded the piano so that Ashlee and I could sing. Fun fact, this was the first time they had heard the song and had no idea what we were planning on singing to them (Disregard video quality):
That's all for now!
BYEEEEEE!
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