There are some early recordings of me singing when I was three and four, and my parents sang to me quite a bit, but my first formal music instruction was in piano at age seven, and I studied off and on until I graduated high school.  By the time I finished, I wasn't proficient in classical technique, but had gained the facility to read fairly well and improvise by ear in a sort of jazzy pop style.  I would often divert from my normal practice routine to work on any of around a hundred simple pop-style piano/vocal love songs.  

Meanwhile, in fifth grade, I started playing drums in school band, and I quickly took on marimba as a secondary percussion instrument.  I started taking drumset lessons in seventh grade, playing in jazz bands until I graduated high school.  Because of my genetic affinity for drum corps, I particularly enjoyed marching band, and I played in drum line in high school.

I started taking classical voice lessons around my freshman year of high school, and that remained a steady part of my training through my undergraduate study at KU.  I was fairly involved in music theater from age 14 to 18. Upon entering the University of Kansas, I intended to be a double-major in classical voice and percussion, but the professors wanted to encourage me (with scholarship money) to focus on one or the other, and so I chose to become a Music Theater/Voice major, and I was involved in two light opera productions at KU before changing majors (a topic covered in an earlier FAQ reply).  I stopped playing drums altogether in 1995, although I still have a particular passion for it and would love to get back into playing.  Since about 1998, my piano playing and singing have largely focused on jazz, as has my musical taste.

Last updated on January 17, 2010 by Kerry Marsh