I was thinking back and made out a list of everything I've been involved with musically, and I realized that I have had a lot of musical influence in my life. I have been involved in music in some capacity since I was a very tiny girl.

My Grandfather LOVED country music, and he played every stringed instrument there is...guitar, mandolin, bass, fiddle, steal guitar, you name it, and he played it all by ear...couldn't read a note of music. Starting when I was 4 years old, on Saturday nights he'd always go to this place somewhere in Memphis where a bunch of people would get together to play country music. It wasn't a bar or anything, and I never saw any drinking going on...it was more of a family setting really. Anyway, there was a little stage, and there was a band set up, and they'd perform lots of the really really OLD country songs, and then there'd be a certain time of the night where anyone who wanted to could get up on stage and sing whatever they wanted, so I would get up there sometimes and sing with my Grandfather. NOW this would be a tiny setup to me, just a little gig, but back THEN? I thought it was a huge concert and that all eyes were on me! It was a major deal to me!!

I think my Grandfather always knew I had musical talent deep down because he was always trying to teach me different things on his guitar, he'd let me play with his mandolin and his fiddle, and I actually could've picked up on the bass really well, except I was too small to even hold it, lol. We always sang together...he taught me some really old country songs I could still sing today. And then he wanted to buy me a really expensive keyboard so I could learn piano, but my Mom wouldn't let him buy it for me. My Mom ended up buying me one of those tiny Casio keyboards from Amro when I was in the 1st grade. I learned how to play every song on there backwards and forwards, and my parents thought I had some talent, too, so they wanted me to take piano lessons.

Then at age 7, I started taking piano lessons. The piano I have at my house now is the one my Dad bought for me back in 1987. The piano was about 11 years old at the time he bought it...he bought it used. It's a Wurlitzer, which I don't think they make those anymore. So that means the piano is about 28 years old now...it's older than me. My Dad worked an extra job doing air conditioner work in the hot summer just to be able to have the money to buy that piano for me. I think he paid around $800 or $900 for it. My piano teacher's name was Mrs. Dooney. She was an older lady, she lived in Whitehaven, and she had two really big dogs. I think their names were Ginger and Pepper. I took lessons from her up until about 10 years old, but I would later quit because I wanted to play everything the way I heard it, not the way it was actually written, and this caused tension between me and my piano teacher. I was always the type person to ad lib, so as you can imagine, my teacher got to where she wouldn't advance me to the next song or next book until I played it exactly the way it was written, which I never could.

When I was 8, we had a Christmas piano recital, where each of her students played maybe 3 or 4 Christmas songs, and then we could each play a solo of our choosing. I chose Top Gun's "Take My Breath Away". My teacher had worked with me on the piece, and after I listened to her play it about 5 times, I had it down, except she thought I was reading it off the page. So when it was time for my recital, I had the sheet music right in front of my face, but I went totally blank halfway through the song, and I suddenly stopped playing. I even heard some lady in the audience whisper "Oh, she messed up!" Well, at this point, that is when my parents and my teacher realized I had been playing by ear all along. I had advanced really fast through all of the beginner books, but when I got to the more advanced books, I couldn't play ANYTHING without the teacher playing it for me first. That was also the breaking point when I decided that I could never play another recital or play for ANYONE other than my teacher or my parents ever, ever again. I was completely humiliated, crushed, mad at myself, and very discouraged, mostly because of what the lady in the crowd said. If she'd just kept her mouth shut, maybe I would've picked up where I left off and kept going. Of course, after this, I really lost interest in piano lessons, and by 10 years old, I quit going to Mrs. Dooney's house. There went my parent's dream of me becoming a concert pianist.

Then when I was 12, I joined my Jr. High band and played snare drum. My Grandfather was really excited about that, and he went to a pawn shop and bought me a drumset and wanted me to learn it, so I practiced a lot and got pretty good at it, so then I ended up playing with him in his country band, and even did a fundraiser concert for the American Veterans of War. I took snare drum lessons on and off starting from 8th grade to 11th grade. I had 3 very great drum teachers...Mike Sims, Jeff West, and Jared Brownlee. They were all very different, but I really did learn a lot from them. My Dad took a portion of his workshop out behind the house and walled off a small room, which we called "The Drum Room". He even installed a window, a door, and a window unit air conditioner. Then he hung a big mirror in there. I decorated the room with my awards and posters and stuff. I kept my drum set in there, a practice xylophone I borrowed from school, and of course, my snare drum. In my high school marching band I marched snare drum from 9th through 12th grade, and was also drum captain my 11th grade year. I still have all of my band metals and awards on a little shelf in my living room. During highschool concert band, I learned how to play almost every percussion instrument there is, including the xylophone, although little did my band instructor know I was playing THAT by ear, as well. I say I never learned to read music, which is partly false. Since I was a drummer, I did have to learn to read rhythms...I just never could learn the notes. So for all of my xylophone parts, I had one of the flute players play the melodies for me so that I could learn my parts. ;-)

When I went to Northwest, I auditioned in the spring of 1999 for the Northwest marching band, and I made it and was even offered a full-paid scholarship, but I decided I wanted to live at home instead of the dorms, and if you have a scholarship, they require you to live in the dorm, so I ended up not getting to do the college band thing.

Then after Michael and I got married, we joined Bethel Baptist Church, and that church is swarming with musical talent, so there wasn't really any room there for me to use what I knew. Then later after we left Bethel, we joined New Beginnings Baptist Church. They have what they call a Praise Band, and they had a piano, keyboard, guitar, bass, and yes, even drums. There was already a drummer there, but I told the song leader that any time they needed someone to fill in for him, I could do it, which I ended up having plenty of opportunities to do because some Sundays the guy that usually played the drums had Guard Duty (he is in the National Guard), so they asked me to play for him a lot. Then it got to where the regular drummer decided that since I loved doing it so much, he'd let me play every other Sunday whether he was there or not.

Then after we moved on from there and joined Grace Baptist Church, Dorothy was a HUGE encouragement. I'd sort of known Dorothy ever since before me and Michael got married, but when we joined Grace, she was the church piano player, and they didn't have anyone on the organ, so she decided she was going to get me to start playing the organ. Then she gradually got me to play a few offeratories and a few specials on the piano, and she also encouraged me to join the Ladies' Group to sing with them. Then months later when she announced she was leaving for college, God already had someone in mind to play the piano for the church...me. Whenever I stop and think about how God had a plan for me all along, and how he lead us to that church, it never fails to amaze me. Before I made the decision to play piano for church, I promise you I could not put together a hymn on the piano. When I had stopped taking lessons at 10 years old, I did nothing more than play around with the piano if I happened to get bored. I never really actively or constructively tried to learn any songs. But once I made that decision for God, God has used my desire and my willingness and has given me the ability that I need to play for church, and I have learned a wealth of songs in a very short amount of time. For all that God has given me and for the musical influences I've had in my life, I feel so unworthy, but also so very blessed and I cannot be thankful enough. Every time I sit down to the piano to play, I ask God to just play through my hands.