About the Artist
Music composition, arranging, recording and performing on guitar are some of my most favorite pastimes. I began playing the piano first. I was about 7. We had an old Empire grand upright. It played like a truck, and now I have brute keyboard hands to show for it. When I was 12, my parents gave me a Kay electric guitar and Silvertone amplifier for Christmas. The Kay was also truck-like, so my hands became even stronger. The British Invasion was in force. Guitar was fairly easy and adopted by the masses. Even the Catholic Church after the second vatican council of 1962 adopted the guitar with compelling songs like Michael, Row the Boat Ashore, Kumbaya My Lord and You Are My Sunshine. Pop songs required only three basic chords, like E-A-D or C-F-G. There were barre chords to learn, and I played piano and guitar whenever I could. For decades. I am blessed to have the gift of a decent ear, and to play a basic song easily. It's instinctive. When music is playing, I don’t hear much else but the music, usually not the lyrics and not any conversation. The term “background music” is an oxymoron. When music is playing, I am dialed in to it.
Aside from some early tape recording in the 1970s, there would be no recording until 2001. That year, I intersected with digital multi-track recording and effects processing. With the help of a Roland XP-80 keyboard-synthesizer, and later the Roland CD-1824 digital workstation, composition and recording was surprisingly easy. The dozen or so instruments you will hear on these albums include viola, violin, flute, clarinet, trombone, electric piano, piano, B3 organ and pipe organ. Also percussion and drums are synthetic. All instruments are played by yours truly. On the Best Of album, you will hear a real professional musician on three tracks, playing flute. That's my dear friend Wendy Herberner Mehne, flute diva.
Since 2001, there have been 100 or so compositions recorded and then released in six albums, Cruising Lane II, Short Stories, Lakeshore Nights, Hill Climb, Best Of, and Trail Run.
I took a music theory class a few years ago. I wanted to learn how to read music and converse technically with other musicians. I found that learning basic music theory as an adult is not easy. The mental blocks one establishes over many years impede learning. Concepts such as base-10 math and the decimal system are blocks. And being able to play songs by ear is another learning block. Young persons can learn languages and music more rapidly without the all of the clutter in the way. So music theory seems arcane. The treble clef different than the bass clef. Twelve chromatic notes spanning a staff having only five lines. All this, supported by centuries of widespread acceptance.
I hope you like what you hear, and thanks for your support.
Brian Frederick 2008
