I have always liked to sing. In sixth grade, I started
to play snare drum in band. I learned how to read rhythm notes, but because
all the percussion notes are on the G line, I always thought that learning
to read music was too hard for me. I played percussion and the the jaw
harp. When I was about 13 I told my mom that I wanted to learn to play
the banjo. She said that I should learn guitar first, because banjos were
more expensive. I understood what the notes were, and if the choir
director gave me the starting note I could sight read, but I never knew
what was C, B, A or G. My brother Bryan played bass in a high school band
called "Rising High". Two classmates of mine, Tom Campbell and Todd Dent,
played guitars. I would hang out at their practices and during breaks mess
around with the guitars, but if you don't know what you're doing, it really
doesn't sound good at all, so I thought guitar was too difficult to learn.
In high school I was in chorus and swing choir and went to Iowa All-State
my junior and senior years. In Stuttgart I met some guys who had a hard
rock band but no singer, so I became the vocalist for "Cockroach". We played
a couple parties, at their school and for my farewell party. I wrote the
song "Bones" for our demo tape. I also sang with a U2 tribute band called
"Shadows and Tall Trees." I bought a very nice 12 string harp, and would
attempt to play my band mate's guitars, but it still sounded horrible.
One day, while I was making a guitar sound particularly pained, one of
my friends joked, "Scot, you can sing and juggle, but you can't play guitar."
When I was in the Peace Corps, Silli Karoly, the
guitarist for the Szekszard band "Hollo", who by the way did a duet with
Martya Sebastian, the Hungarian singer who did the vocals for "The English
Patient", came over to meet me. I don't know why, I guess he wanted to
meet an American. He saw all my musical instruments and asked me, "Why
don't you play guitar?" I said it was too hard. He said that it wasn't
and brought over an old guitar of his the next day. For several months
Patricia endured hours and hours of atonal practice, but eventually I started
to sound halfway decent. I still basically do just rhythm accompaniment,
but I can pick some nice arpeigos too. Now I use my guitar very often in
teaching English lessons.
In California, my brother's band "Blue Steele" needed
a rhythm guitarist, so I did that from 1994 to 1996. We did a lot of 60s
and 70s classics. I sang Country Roads, Looking Out My Backdoor, Folsom
Prison, and "I love you more than my guitar" which I wrote for Patricia.
We basically just practiced for fun, but we did play at Joe and Liam's
brother's birthday party and made some tapes and a CD.
In 1995 I bought a banjo at a music shop in Palo
Alto, CA that Jerry Garcia used to work at when he was a kid. I got some
books and learned a little. In 1997 Patricia encouraged me to take a banjo
class from St. Paul Continuing Education courses, and I learned a
little more. Now I can play quite a few simple songs like "Cripple Creek",
"Go tell Aunt Rhoady", "Old MacDonald", "Oh Susanna", and such.
In St. Paul I joined the St. Louis Church's choir
in 1997. I sing first tenor there. The director, Thomas Robertson, is excellent,
and we do really interesting and challenging music. In 1998 a new organ,
Cassavant Freres Opus 3796, was installed. It is very awe inspiring to
sing every Sunday under this magnificent instrument.
Green Mountain H.S. Swing Choir-1985. |
Singing a solo to "Only You" |
"Shadows and Tall Trees" Stuttgart, 1990. |
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Playing for my class at Language Pacifica, 1995. |
Providing entertainment for a party. Language Pacifica, 1995. |
My banjo, harp, piano and guitar. |
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St. Louis Church, St. Paul, MN. |
The altar. |
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