MY MUSICAL JOURNEY

 

My earliest memory of participating in music is New Paris grade school percussion, using many of the "instruments" shown above.  Obviously our first "music" was all about percussion and keeping time.  In the second or third grade, we added song flute.  I must have shown some abilities because soon I was placed with the cornets in grade school band.  Our band teacher throughout grade school and high school was Mr. Alan Harness, and he must have impressed upon my mother that I had some skills because the next thing I knew, I was off to Elkhart for private lessons! 

The Conn Constellation Cornet [not trumpet]

As eighth graders in our Class of 1964, Steve Eldridge, Dennis Caprarotta and I were in the High School Band.  Mr. Harness moved Dennis to French Horn, and Steve and I became first and second chair cornet in our junior and senior years.  Of course my mother thought that I was number one, and Steve's mother thought that he was number one - and Mr. Harness decided that I was number one.  I was also selected first chair in the All-Elkhart County band for two years and got to play a brief solo in one of the numbers.  I and my band partners won a fair amount of first and second place medals, and one of my favorites was Bugler's Holiday, with me, Steve and third chair Dick Kerlin.  As I mentioned in one of my basketball posts, I also played in the pep band while I was on the JV team, and would run up into the stands at half time to play, mainly because our school song, Frat, had a nice cornet solo.  Thankfully I did not have to do that once I was on the varsity team!  Another interesting tidbit is that New Paris had a marching band - usually played in the summer time in full-dress uniform including white buck shoes.  Mr. Harness finally agreed to Bermuda shorts after a few band members fainted in the heat.  A distinct memory is marching in the New Paris Memorial Day Parade that always ended up in the town cemetery.  I played Taps there several times, which was a bit ironic - a fellow from the Mennonite peace church tradition playing to honor the locals who had died in WW1, WW2 and Korea.  Also growing up in the Mennonite Church, I became very familiar with a capella four-part harmony singing.  I do not consider myself much of a singer, but I can do bass harmonies quite well.  My parents and sister have all of the family's singing talent - Ed sang with the original Menno Singers, Mary with the Middie Singers and Saint John's Singers, and Kay is a professional vocalist [and an amazing piano player].  Our high school choir was never quite as good as the band when it came to state competitions, but in our senior year, the choir got a first place.  Here's one of the songs we sang, although we probably did not sound quite this good! Our long-time choir director was Mrs. Helen Hollar, and of course the standing joke for decades was "If you want to learn how to sing, go to Helen Hollar."

My cornet playing days came to an abrupt end during my junior year at Goshen College.  I was driving my old Chevy south on Fifth Street in Goshen, heading back to college.  There was a large tree branch mostly obscuring the stop sign, and I cruised right through it, hitting the back end of a car going east on US 33.  My friend saw it coming out of the corner of his eye, and braced for the crash - his knees left dent marks in the dash board.  Since this was pre-seat belt days, I bit the steering wheel, leaving some lip flesh and pieces of seven teeth in the steering wheel.  So, there went the embouchure.  I had scar tissue nodules in my lips for years and could not play cornet.  I also spent many hours at the dentist for root canals and caps, which solidified my despising visits to the dentist.

It was the 1960's, and since the cornet was out, guitar was the obvious choice - a lot of fellows were taking it up, but more as a babe-magnet than a musical ambition.  My good friend, and future brother-in-law, Ken Willems was playing guitar, so I started as well.  One of our classmates was a fellow named Henry Gleason who's father worked for the Kaman Corporation.  The company did a lot of things, but one specialty was helicopter design and construction using fine woods and composite materials.  Founder Charles Kaman was an amateur guitarist, and he designed and built guitars that became the Ovation Guitar Company.  So Henry brought his guitar to Goshen and convinced me to buy one - I got the 449th Balladeer ever made.  Folk tunes, protest songs and roots music were the focus at the time, and Ken got me started with finger picking in the style of Elizabeth Cotton, i.e. Cotton Picking, and a similar style that is taught as Travis picking.  Although the Balladeer was an acoustic guitar, one could use a pick-up to electrify it.  I only did this a few times during college as the rhythm guitar player for the Backdoor Men.  Ken decided to drop out of the band, so I filled in for a few gigs. 

For decades after college, my guitar playing consisted mainly of strumming and picking by myself, with occasional get-togethers with Ken to play old tunes and some of the songs that Ken has written.  My mother bought a guitar so that I could play whenever we visited Indiana.  Also, my 104-year-old uncle, John Aschliman, has some nice guitars courtesy of his son Donn, and I sometimes borrow one of John's guitars.  Amazingly although John is very hard of hearing, he still plays and sings, and is a hit with the Greencroft crowd!

Since Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp began hosting the Colorado Roots Music Camp, I have become more committed to learning new styles and songs.  I have been a volunteer at the camp for several years working in the kitchen, but in my free time I have been welcomed by both campers and instructors to join in the daily jam sessions.  I have learned to know some of the campers who live in the Denver area, and have joined in for a jam now and then.  Music Camp friend Glenn has even helped me to get a bevy of songs on my iPad.  Probably the most amazing jam that I sat in on at Roots Camp was with instructor Doug Smith and a local fellow named Phil Volan.  I knew that Doug was a Grammy winner and champion of the Winfield International Fingerstyle guitar competition, but I did not know that Phil was a second place winner!  They both were very gracious in allowing a few of us rank amateurs to play along, but they also played a few tunes together that were amazing, as you might imagine.  Phil's voice sounds a lot like James Taylor's, and he plays guitar just as well, so it was a real treat just to listen to Phil and Doug play and sing. Be sure to check out their links to get a bit of an appreciation for their talent.

The final tunes at Ed and Mary's place.