Piano Lessons in Buena Park, CA

Instruments: Bass Guitar

Does music run in your family? Tell us a little about your musical family members.
My dad is a drummer. He was in drumcore and marching band since high school, went to UCLA and continued playing jazz there, and to this very day plauys in a top 40 covers band around the South Bay area.

When did you decide to become a professional musician? Was it a gradual decision or was there a defining moment for you?
I decided in college that i wanted to become a professional. The deciding year for me was 2014 when i took off 6 months of school to practice every single day for 10 hours. During that time I filled in a lot of gaps in my playing and returned to school to graduate with my new dedication to the craft and level of playing.

If you play more than one instrument, how did you decide to start playing the second? (Or 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc)!
I play piano, guitar and drums. My first instrument was piano, as my parents forced me to learn if i wanted to learn the bass. The piano gave me a strong foundation on harmony and helped me learn how to read music. I picked up the guitar because i thought it would be the same as the bass, but just higher pitched! I was definitely wrong about that. And i learned drums because my dad is a drummer and to this day drums is the main secondary instrumemt, as it helps very directly with bass and my sense of time and feel.

If you weren't a musician what do you think you'd be doing instead?
I originally went to college as a biology major in hopes of being an optometrist. I always thought that profession was so appealing because it's a clean and not bloody work space unlike other medical fields.

What is your favorite style/genre of music to play and why?
My favorite style of music to play is gospel! It blends my background in jazz harmony with a lot of RnB and funk (as we know it today) with a higher purpose of playing music. Instead of playing the music to just be at a high level, it is centered around worshipping God and helping others worship. To me, that is as free and expressive as it gets which is what music is all about.

What is your dream piece to perform and why?
My dream venue would be the Hollywood Bowl! It's such a staple in the LA community and worldwide. Seeing my friends play it with different artists or at different festivals inspires me to keep aiming for it. I don't care too much about the venue status normally but the Hollywood Bowl is just so iconic, as it was my first experience seeing Earth, Wind, and Fire live.

If you have a Music Degree, what is it in (Performance, Education, Musicology, Theory, Composition, etc) and why did you choose that degree?
I have a degree in jazz studies from the University of California Santa Barbara. I paired this degree with my major in Sociology, as i found that being informed with jazz theory and composition along with communicative and professional skills i learned in my Sociology major work well together in the working world of being a full-time musician.

What does a normal practice session look like for you?
I try to split up my practice sessions into 3 parts. After hand warm-ups, I start by ear training for about 20 minutes (away from the bass), work through a piece or new harmonic concept I'm trying to learn, and at the end just have fun and play through whatever songs I'm feeling that day!

Read More