Bio

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Music has been a constant through my entire life. My parents both play and sing together. I would hear them and my extended family sing and play at get-togethers and reunions- old folk, country, and gospel standards like ‘Wayfaring Stranger’, ‘Will The Circle Be Unbroken’, and ‘Harper Valley PTA’- plus many original songs of theirs deeply etched into my story. I’ve been told I’d stand on pews as a toddler and contribute dynamically insensitive harmony vocals to the songs sang in our little country church. I knew nothing else besides the naturalness of musical expression, more grateful for it the older I get.

Music wasn’t just a hobby in the house. My dad started teaching lessons and selling music accessories now five decades ago, growing into a thriving business that stood the test of time (Tulsa’s Firey Bros. Music). It’s a legacy that seems to fuel my endless desire to play and understand music, of which I’m forever grateful.

I started performing on piano from an early age. Middle School angst, (and finally having a bigger hand), led me to the guitar. High School need-for-inclusion led to joining marching, concert, and jazz band. These new levels of music opened up further worlds and many challenges, full of formative experiences. This is when I started to sense I wanted to spend as much time chasing musical participation and experience as I could. I’ve kept to that since.

I ended up attending Oklahoma State University, where I studied classical piano (no guitar program! piano saves the day), as well as rudimental and orchestral percussion. As you do in music school, I divided myself between:

• unforgiving classical piano repertoire

• jazz guitar-ing in combos/big bands

• marching/concert percussion

• choirs

• trying to just listen to and play what I enjoy.
  
  While there I was a part of an award-winning jazz ensemble, provided music direction for Stillwater’s First Christian Church, played various musicals, in jazz combos, and bluegrass band, among other roles.

As a guitarist, I’ve been lucky to share the stage with Andy Martin, Wayne Bergeron, Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., Bobby Shew, and Slide Hampton, as well as Grammy nominated guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel. My transcription project of Chris Thile’s Bluegrass String Quintet, “The Blind Leaving The Blind”, received accolades from Thile himself (one of my top musical heroes!).

I began teaching in college. I immediately loved it despite finding it quite an adventure. What started as an easy gig has become an equal passion to playing. Teaching led to seeking deeper musical understanding through my playing, which led back into the teaching.

This cycle led me to teach at various studios-Stillwater OK’s Daddy O’s Music, Tulsa’s Firey Bros. Music, Broken Arrow’s Albany School of Music, Sand Springs’ Firey Music and Lessons, Bixby’s BWC Drumworks, and Tulsa Community College.

I now reside chiefly at Tulsa’s Riverfield Country Day School, where I help lead “Riverfield Rocks”, the county’s largest program like it. We put on 3-4 events through the school year, rehearsing nearly twenty bands as they learn how to perform a varied set of songs. I also teach theory and private lessons. My passion for education (for both myself and others) has currently taken center stage, though this surely will inspire future music-making.

Unexpectedly, I experienced a series of musical paradigm shifts-coincidentally around the time I became a parent, now over five years ago. These were profound and changed many of my starting premises as a musician, as well as how I play, practice, listen, write, and teach. They were brought on by a few key mentors, musicians and otherwise*. They also came through life experience and music that made something inside me come into focus.

Simultaneously, I’ve begun to find the approach to teach and convey something I’ve always been able to do: play nearly anything I hear easily by ear (within my modest technical limits), as a language that anyone can learn with practice. I call this musical fluency, and my heart is to share this skill with as many that want it. It’s a path towards maximum and natural musical participation, one that I’m on just as much as any student. I’m excited to begin developing pedagogy that I can share and scale in clearer, ways.

In my free time I’m preparing to teach the above, learning about something, and enjoying being with my family . My wife Kasie (who I met because she randomly picked me to take guitar lessons from) and I have an amazing son, Noah, who already loves to play drums, piano, guitar, and is teaching me a lot about playing without expectations. The family band tour is forthcoming.