I began playing piano at age 5, my mom sent me up the block to a piano teacher and we had an old upright that was given to us by someone who owed my dad some money. He had it tuned and the cost was $5 back in 1945, which was a lot of money in those days. The piano lessons were .50 cents an hour and I went twice a week. After a few months, the piano teacher came to our home and said she was going to refund my mom for the lessons because I would never learn to play. She was right, when it came to piano. At age 12 I was playing an acoustic guitar, knew about a dozen chords, mostly country music and singing. The very first song I learned was Old Mountain Dew. Then I began playing and singing some mid 50s Doo Wap music on the guitar, the young girls in the neighborhood thought I would be the next Elvis, they loved my voice, but never commented on my playing skills, so I guess that piano teacher was right. When I joined the US Navy, I continued singing and playing guitar, was the singer for a small, 5 piece rock band with some shipmates, played and sang all over Europe, but never made enough money to cover the bar bill most of the time. We sure had fun, though.

When I purchased my very first arranger keyboard, I tried my hand at playing it as just a piano. The piano teacher was right - I cannot play piano while trying to read the dots - something just didn't seem to translate the information from my minuscule brain cells to my arthritic fingers. But, turn on a style and I was in Hog Heaven. Never looked back, sold my guitars for a fraction of what they were worth, and started making a good living as an entertainer and singer, which is the way it was meant to be.

So, where would I rate my playing skills, somewhere near the bottom, but I sincerely believe my entertainment skills were a lot closer to the top. Hell, I made enough to support my family, establish a good retirement account, purchase a 33-foot Morgan sailing yacht and a lot of other silly things.

All the best,

Gary