Fellow music lovers,

For the past 2 plus years I have been taking advantage of all the wonderful information, music, styles, tips etc. on the various forums. The other day I decided to emerge from my shell and join with all you guys and gals from all over the world. So I signed up and here I am. I see from some of the comments on this site you would like to know who you are talking to so here are some of the dull, uninteresting facts -

The name is Doug Dean from a little city in northern Illinois USA. Prospect Heights to be exact. At 75 years old it’s a wonder I’m still here after raising 6 kids and sending them to school. How did I find the money to clothe and feed them? By chasing lawn mowers and digging holes in the ground and filling them with trees. A hi-teck name - Landscape Contractor. After 57 years of doing this I’m still doing this. Kind of dumb, eh? Maybe not! My sons run the business and my wife and I run the office. I do the computer work and drawing and Ruth takes care of the rest. I can use the computer and get on the net and when I get enough of that I slide over to my KN6500 and off I go into another world. The house and office are attached. Cool? I slide out of bed and I’m at work.

About music and me? Learned tenor sax by playing in school band. No lessons other than school band. My dad got into World War 2 and got transferred to Jacksonville navel station in Florida. Next to the navy base was a little nite club. Sneaking into the club and talking to the band I found out their tenor player was being drafted. I told them not to worry, I could fill that job with no problem. (The gall of teenagers). They said, of course you double on clarinet. Sure I said. Next day I went to the local pawn shop and haggled for one. Came home and for 12-14 hours a day learned the thing. Drove my folks nuts. After about two weeks the tenor man left for service and they gave me the tenor charts. Went home and practiced them. Again drove the folks nuts. Played in that 7 piece band until I finished high school and I went into the navy for the duration.

Started my business in ‘46. After a few years some of the business guys around town found out that we at one time played some type of instrument. We then decided to meet in one of the guys garage and try to jam a bit and see what would happen. Just to relax. Well one thing led to another and we decided to buy some charts for the six of us. One evening during the summer we were having a good time jamming it up when a neighbor from down the street came over and asked if we would like to play for his daughters wedding. From that time on we played a couple times a month for all kinds of local functions. Never really a good band but had the people fooled. None of us business guys needed the money so we put it into a kitty and would buy music, stands, tuxes and take our wives out. Nice way to relax, have fun and at no cost to us. After we started getting old some of the group died, I lost my teeth and others had problems. We disbanded. One day after about 10 years I stumbled into a music store to see what was going on. The salesman was demonstrating this KN1000 to some old gal so I watched. After she left I asked the guy where the band was coming from. Was it a tape in the keyboard or what. I couldn’t believe how good it sounded. Just like playing with a band. He explained it was a computer chip and all of it was in the board itself. He showed me how it all worked. I was so intrigued by it all that after 1 hour he had my $2300.00 and I had his keyboard under my arm. He said I already could read the single melody line and all I had to do was go home learn which black and white keys matched the notes, learn a few chords and I was on my way. Wow! Playing with a band again by myself. Grrreeeeeat!!! After ten years and many, many hours of learning the keyboard, here is me. If anyone would like to hear the rest of the story let me know and I will e-mail you the files I made for my kids this past holiday season.



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Grampa Doug

Hi Doug
"WOW" Wecome to Synthzone,what a lovely life you have,this is the place to be so many nice & helpfull people here, would love to have your songs when you have time, hope you enjoy this forum as much as I do,good luck and thanks.
Mike

Hi Doug,
Welcome to the Technic's Forum. Thank you for posting your bio as your first post. I really wish more people would do that. We can learn so much from each other right here on this forum.
I will look forward to some samples of your work, and thank you in advance for sending them over. Best to you, have a great year and put a lot of posts on this board. It is your board as well as everyone else's.


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BEBOP
Moderator SynthZone TECHNICS FORUM
http://www.synthzone.com/cgi-bin/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=25
Bill Forrest in SAN JOSE, CALIF. USA
bforrest@ix.netcom.com ICQ # 562519
Homepage http://members.fortunecity.com/bebop1

Hllo Doug,
From one new member, who is also a recycled teenager to another WELCOME.I am sure you will find the Technics Forum a great place to be, the number of talented members here who give freely of their knowledge and time is fantastic and although somtimes continents apart are quite a family of enthusiasts
regards Gilbert

Granpar Doug...What a wonderful story and thank you for sharing it with us all.

Best wishes Graham UK (England)

Hi Doug, Welcome to THE forum from a slightly younger Grandpa. Hope you enjoy the fellowship and friendliness shown to all members. Looking forward to hearing your songs/tunes. Enjoyed your Bio very much.

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Willum

Doug:
Very interesting, entertaining bio. I like you're writing style. As a teacher, I notice things like that. Hope you will post more often.
Larry

Hi Douglas,
nice to see you, and welcome aboard
GJ

I just finished listening to Douglas Songs, and I highly recommend that you get them. They are exceptionally well done and very unique in the application of on-board styles that many of us would never have considered using. These are really keepers.
Thank you for sharing your work with us. You have great talent. I will always be open to receiving any other songs you record and care to share.
Again Welcome to the Technics Forum. Make it your first read of the day and then share your thoughts with us. Thank you


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BEBOP
Moderator SynthZone TECHNICS FORUM
http://www.synthzone.com/cgi-bin/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=25
Bill Forrest in SAN JOSE, CALIF. USA
bforrest@ix.netcom.com ICQ # 562519
Homepage http://members.fortunecity.com/bebop1

Thanks BEBOP,

My soul is warmed. My self-esteem is restored. I just showed my wife your post. See, I said, my ideas are not as bad as you think. (Ruth is not at all bashful when it comes to evaluating my keyboard playing). Ruth, my wife, likes to read in the evening. Me, her husband, likes to play his KN. Play his KN through his amp and nice big bold speakers. I told her I spent a lot of her money to buy these things, so it seems a shame not to use them aggressively. She retorted, I also bought you a very nice heavy duty set of earphones. A light bulb started to shine in my mind. Eureka, I said. I got it!! Remembering when they trimmed our front tree, the chain saw guy had a pair of earphones on so it blocked the saw noise. What a good idea! I got the heavy duty earphones out, cut off the wires and put the phones on the wife. As usual my ideas didn't seem to please her. I guess she finally resolved herself to the fact that that was the best she could do with me. Everything seems to be tolerable for the past year. I got another good tip for you guys. When Ruth and I converse with each other I take my glasses off. That way the old gal has no apparent wrinkles and looks almost like the day I married her. Much more pleasant and has a tendency to keep the marriage together.

Well fellow musicians and appreciators of good loud music, I said all this to say thanks BEBOP for liking my interpretations.

Grandpa Doug

Hey Doug,
I solved the problem with my wife that watches Tv every evening while I am playing music every evening. I designed the new house around the recording studio and thought it was well enough insulated to keep the sound in here. Well at 100 watts per channel it doesnt, so I bought her a set of stereo wireless earphones with self charging batteries and charger. plugged them into the TV and that is the end of my problem and my report. Give it a try, it works great
Bebop

Grandpa Doug...I trust your wife wasn't looking over your shoulder when you mentioned the part about her wrinkles! If we see no more posts from you, then we'll know the answer!!

Hey BEBOP,

I think were on to something. One of the main reasons I signed up on this forum was to exchange ideas on using our KN’s. Tip’s and tricks, sounds and edits, styles and wiles, etcetera and etcetera. It now dawn’s on me there’s something greater than all of us musicians. Greater problems confront us even before we sit down to play our great sounds and compositions. Aghast! Our Wives!!!

You and I have solved this in each his own way. I think it’s about time somebody would start a new thread. If I would dare to undertake this I think I would name the thread -
“OKB & TLW” (Our KeyBoard and The Little Woman)

There must be many other players out there with the same problems we have experienced in the process of rendering our great compositions. Lets us share our solutions to this great and perplexing problem confronting most of us. Only then can we sit down and enjoy our playing with peace of mind. First things first!

Wada U think?

(not quite a grandpa yet, but who knows .... the kids are getting older everyday - thankfully, I.....AM NOT)

Doug - your writing style is very refreshing. Welcome to the gang.

Hi Douglas,
Welcome to the Forum, however, I must protest! Your wife/glasses/wrinkles story has serious holes in it! Perhaps instead of taking your glasses off when you look at your wife to enjoy her everlasting beauty, you should leave them on. Except, wear them backwards! I am not positive this will work, but I think they might reflect the full truth of this matter. Your wife has been beautiful all along! While shaving in the morning and looking at yourself in a foggy mirror, you have been mistaking those deep grooves in your face as character lines! :eek By wearing your glasses backwards, perhaps you will see the reflection of your face clearly and you will instead be saying to yourself, "How lucky can an old looking duffer like me be to have such a young, beautiful and charming wife that has put up with me all these years". Be warned though, don't let your wife catch you with your glasses on backwards! She might just see that those aren't character lines and trade you in for two 40's.

Now I must go on and mention your OKB & TLW (Our keyboard and the little woman) club! That will never work! In my house, hubby watches TV (I gave up years ago trying to get any semblence of control over the remote!) and I play my PR. I am the one who has to wear the headphones! The Lord of the Palace isn't about to wear headphones just so the Lady can entertain herself! (Pay attention, BEBOP, and give you wife a big old sloppy, wet kiss for wearing those headphones!) So, in conclusion, you will have to scrap the name of your club and choose one a little more appropriate! Perhaps OTI & LSS (Our Technics Instruments and Long Suffering Spouses). But, with your quick wit, I am sure you will come up with something even better.

Finally, in all seriousness now, it is great to have you on the Forum and I look forward to reading your ingenious posts!
Carol

BEBOP, Bud, Uncle Dave and Carol,

Hey Bud and Carol, I’m still here. I really did not want to admit it, but if you really want to know the full truth of matter I kind of got the idea about the glasses from my wife. Occasionally when the little woman would come up to me, put her arms around me, run her fingers through my hair and tenderly kiss me, I noticed before she done anything she took her glasses off. At first I was under the impression she wanted me to see her as she looked when we were younger, no glasses and beautiful. As she would approach and get closer to me in these somewhat rare moments, I would experience her warm lovely breath on my cheek, look into her big beautiful blue eyes and see the large puffy bags under them with deep wrinkly lines flowing downward, skirting her big red lovely puckered up lips and gently flowing down under chin number two. Carol, your right, one day while shaving I did look closely at the reflection in the mirror. After taking into account what I was really seeing and pondering over the visual image filtering in through my green, red bloodshot eyeballs I kind of changed my theory about the glasses. It was really Ruth who wanted to see me as when I was younger and handsome. After doing a lot of damage control to my ego I figured the old saying had a lot of merit. “If you can’t beat em, join em.” So off came the glasses. And that's the rest of the story.

Uncle Dave,

Thanks for the welcome. As far as my writing style I tell it like I see it. When I do things I’m always considerate of my wife. I always give her a choice in decisions, she can come with me or stay home. As you no doubt can tell I do not take things very seriously. I enjoy my work, I enjoy married life, my kids and the things I do. Musically I play the things I like and I like to make it swing and present it with a flair of my own. My philosophy in life is when I do anything, I strive to do it to the best of my ability. In all things, work or play. When I buy tractors, trucks and equipment for my business or my pleasure I always look for quality. Some times I get stuck, so I go by the old Chinese proverb: “You fool me once, shame on you. You fool me twice shame on me”. Sorry about your keyboard. There is absolutely no substitute for quality as far as I’m concerned. No sense complaining, many of the manufactures today only look at the bottom line. Throw the junk away and apply that Old Chinese Proverb. Good Luck.

BEBOP and Carol,

I know you all are not going to believe this. Cross my fingers and hope to die, this is the bare faced truth. Looking everybody straight in the eye. What am I talking about? Bebop and Carol I’m talking about your spouses, the TV and playing the keyboard problem. As we discussed before, playing the keyboard, technical problems and such are minor compared to having peace in the family when playing. Yes, I have completely solved the issue of TV verses the melodic sounds wafting through the ether from our beautiful computerized instruments. Yes the conflict of TV voices and beautiful music colliding in mid air between the two has been completely remedied in my household. Not in a four lettered word but in four words. Not just four words but in four words of action. Yes, action is the key word in solving this problem. in one decisive grand move thirty two years ago this TV problem has been put to rest. I threw it out. Never did I realize the benefits. The six kids improved their grades, supper was on the table when I came home from work, everybody in the house learned how to talk to each other, saved on electricity and repair bills and they even had some respect for the old man. Even to this very day I don’t have any TV problems like BEBOP and Carol. Carol, I’m still working on a new name for the club.

Grandpa Doug ---------with no TV

Dear Grandpa Doug,
You leave me speechless -- and that doesn't happen very often! Have you ever considered writing romance novels? I think you missed your calling! Give Ruth a sympathetic hug from me -- I have a feeling she can't win with you, you just plain charm the socks off her! How more wonderful can it get?
Carol

Carol,

As you can plainly see I'm a man of few words. When I met Ruth I was so infactuated I was going to write a love story and give it to her. The reason being I was very bashful. Words stuck in my throat. At first she may have thought: Maybe he might be a little retarded. In any event we started to go on dates. She lived on a farm about a mile down the road. Her dad used to raise melons, carrets and the like. He was getting up in age and decided to raise pigs and a few cattle a couple of years before I met Ruth. Truck farming was getting too labor intensive for him.

You guessed it! After three years I finaly got up the courage to open my mouth and asked her if she would like to consider marrying me if I would ask. (I wasn't to handy with words at the time). This all took place in her barnyard after we came home from a date to the local drive-in movie. My hands trembling and sweat whelling up on my forehead, she with a rather loud bellow, exclaimed, Yes yes yes, anything to get away from these stinking old pigs. After fifty two years of blissful togetherness we are still together. Ruth still sticks with her decision never regreting her choice. I guess it's in all the way one looks at things.

I am glad I never wrote that romance story that you say I should right, but decided to live it instead. I too am sticking with my decision.

Too bad about you being speechless. I must say you'r the first woman I have ever met in that condition. Could you coach Ruthie?

Grandpa Doug