My Musical Background

Sometime last year I wrote this to apply for The Voice. I think it's a great introduction to myself and my overall musical background. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!! Let me know in the comments below!

​As a small child I can remember tremendously enjoying music. I remember singing in church, to the radio, and with my family members. I also took piano lessons for a while, and played the trumpet through middle school, but the biggest moment of my young life came when I was in fourth or fifth grade. CD players for vehicles were just coming out and my parents had one installed into our red and gold Chevy Silverado. With it they of course purchased a few music CD’s to listen to in the truck. One of these was a double disc set of Billy Joel’s greatest hits. I started listening in the truck by myself late one afternoon, and was instantly hooked. The piano, the melodies, the electric guitars, the rhythm and lyrics opened my eyes and ears to infinite possibilities. I was out there for what seemed like hours. This was the moment when my love for music really came to fruition.

I’ve been told by many friends and family members that I have an uncanny memory for melodies and lyrics, so much that many times it only takes a few times of listening to a song for me to be able to sing it or recall it from memory. I remember singing while out working in the fields on our farm, or while riding my horse to gather cattle. However, due to my higher range and ability to sing falsetto, I was always afraid to sing in front of people for fear of “sounding like a girl”. I thought that men were supposed to have deep baritone or bass voices. Well, that all changed at the end of my junior year of high school. 

School choir tryouts were being held for the following year, my senior year, and there was a cute girl that I liked at the time who wanted me to try out with her. If she was going to, of course I was going to! I remember going to tryout and walking into the choir room for the first time and my teacher was sitting at a piano. He wanted to find out what my range was and had me mimic notes as he scaled up the keys of the piano. When I got to where I had to change to falsetto, I hesitated and was embarrassed to continue on. He kindly encouraged me to keep going and see how high I could go. When all was said and done, he was pleasantly surprised by my range and continued to encourage and foster my vocal growth all throughout the next year. I was even cast as the lead in our school musical that year, and had lead singing parts in our end of the year choir spectacular. Unfortunately, the cute girl did not try out for choir, but I am grateful that I did. I will also always be grateful for my choir teacher who had faith in me and my ability as it helped me to grow vocally, and helped me become the individual that I am today!

After high school I continued to sing in church, in choirs, and even took voice lessons and classes in college to help me increase my vocal ability. In college I also had the opportunity to form a band with some friends and a cousin. We were called Counterfeit Digits and played all the local scenes in Provo, Utah that we could. The biggest crowd that we played for was a group of about 3,000 students. I was the lead singer and we all worked very hard and had a good following in town. We even made two EP’s of our own music and worked to get them into the hands of music producers. Unfortunately it did not work for us at the time, but it is still fun to listen to those recordings and reminisce about those times together. 

When college was over I moved to Denver, Colorado after graduation for work but continued to pursue music. I was a member of the Colorado Mormon Chorale for a short time, and also sang in a 70’s to 90’s cover band for about a year or so. Now I still enjoy singing in church, most of the time with my wife who also has a lovely voice. I also play a little guitar and sing for my wife and our kids. Thank you for your time and consideration!