Music has been a major part of my life as long as I can remember. My mother has always played the piano without ever learning how to read music. She would play at church or at my grandparents' house... whenever she got the chance. My great-uncle Gordon also played music by ear, both piano and guitar. After my mother bought a piano for our house, there were sing-alongs there at least once or twice a year. Whenever reunion time came you could count on hearing some kind of music at our house.
I always heard stories about how my great-grandfather Hollis used to play music, a mandolin I believe. My grandfather Poe had also played the guitar in younger years. In my teenage years my father even picked up the banjo and became quite proficient on a number of bluegrass standards. It seems that I could hardly avoid music or the desire to play it.
There was not just one type of music which influenced my life, either. My parents often listened to country music stations around the Birmingham area. There were gospel standards at church. I turned to pop and rock in the mid-1980s, and also developed a love for older pop and folk-rock music like the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel.
High school band (The Sound of the Saints) gave me the opportunity to learn to read music and to finally play an instrument. Although I wanted to learn the saxophone (one dream I have not yet accomplished), I took up the trumpet instead. It also gave me an appreciation for more classical works, and led to a love of Mozart.
In college, I continued in marching band (The Marching Southerners). This is when I really discovered what powerful music could be made when you put 300 people on a field, in a stadium. I'll never forget the exhilaration of just being there and being a part of it.
The influences of college can be limitless, and I discovered new worlds of music there. It was at this time that began to branch into more alternative music. I also picked up a classical guitar at a yard sale. With that and a big book of simple Beatles songs, I taught myself how to play.
I joined the military and during basic training was a member of the Drum and Bugle Corps. For about five weeks, we played a mixture of patriotic songs at various military functions, parades and retreats. After my arrival in California for my technical training I joined the choir. My time with them saw some appearances at local events, a performance at the Air Force Birthday Ball, and cluminated with a large, well-directed and well-performed concert of choir arrangements, solos, and duets.
In the late 1990s, the military took me to Yorkshire, England. While I was there, I had the privilege of being part of the Air Force Corale. It was not an ongoing project, but seemed to kick into high gear every year at Christmas, just in time for our Unit's annual Christmas Ball. I was also asked to perform the national anthem at a joint service dining-out, and I performed both the British and American national anthems at and Air Force Birthday Ball, at which I also performed with the Air Force Corale.
A real highlight of my time in England was my time with the White Rose Concert Band. It's refreshing to see how popular small concert bands still are in England. There are brass bands, orchestras, wind bands, and others. The White Rose Concert Band was a wind band, which meant that aside from percussion, all the instruments were wind instruments... no strings. At least once per month we performed at local events and once per week we gathered to practice for an upcoming wind band competition in Manchester. We recieved an honorable mention at that particular event.
In more recent years I have returned to some influences from the past, while maintaining a love and interest in just about every form of music. I may listen to the Beatles one day, then pick up some blues, like Robert Johnson or early Fleetwood Mac, on another. Sometimes I want to listen to some Jim and Jesse bluegrass and other times I have to get a dose of heavy rock via Cream or Led Zepplin. All I know is that I have to have my music.
My guitars, my classical with nylon strings or my accoustic with wire strings, are always close at hand. We have a piano now, and sometimes I sit down and do my best to plink out some little tune. My trumpet hides, sometimes under my bed and sometimes in a closet, knowing I'll be back eventually. Playing music has always been a joy to me, and though I know that I will never reach the heights that some musicians have reached, I will never quit playing.
Eric
July 2001