When I was 8, my parents got me a clarinet, like Mindy plays in the Sunnyside Up band. It was nice to play an instrument that I could carry (pianos are a little too big for that…) or play in a marching band. In 4th grade, when our school did a performance of The Pied Piper, guess who got to be the Pied Piper? They chose ME, because I was the only one who played a marching instrument!

Then when I was 12, I got my first guitar, and soon I started learning all my favorite songs that I listened to on the radio. The Beatles were my favorite, and they had about 300 songs, so I had a lot of work to do!

By the time I was 15, I had started playing electric guitar, and had my own band! It was me and my best friends Paul, Jay and Peter. We were called "The Fibers", and we played songs by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and the Who. We also wrote our own songs. Writing songs is easier than you might think. You can write a song about anything. One time we were sad because Jay, our bass guitar player moved away, and we knew it would be hard to find another bass player. So we wrote a song called "Mr. Bass Player".. The words went:

Mr. Bass Player, Mr. Bass Player, where are you?
Mr. Bass Player, Mr. Bass Player, will you ever come through?

All you have to do is make up some words on paper and then sing them. If you can draw a picture, you can write a song!

Since high school, I've played with more bands than there are keys on a piano (that's 88, in case you don't know!) Some bands I played with for many years, some just for one night or a few weeks. My friends ask me to play with their bands, and sometimes people I don't even know ask me to play music with them. It's the most fun thing in my life, to be able to play all this different music and make so many people happy -- people like you, when you come to a Sunnyside Up Band show. I feel lucky to have had the chance to learn music so well. I'm glad I kept practicing the piano even when I wanted to do other things like play games or watch TV. I hope all of you have the chance to learn a musical instrument or two.

Jamming with my brother Jeremy in Oregon

Playing mandolin for happy people in Ireland

Well, that's it for me. See you at a Sunnyside Up show soon!