Folk music

In my post about music I left out a part. When I was in high school, folk music became very popular. It started with the Kingston Trio. Their first hit was Tom Dooley. Other groups built on their popularity and soon there were many folk songs among the top hits of the day. There were even a couple of prime time folk song based TV shows. One was Hootenanny. Country songs that were done in a folk song manner were among those hits. Folk, pop, and country all kind of blended together and competed with rock and roll on the radio. I enjoyed them all. I loved to sing along with the radio.

Several of my friends bought guitars and started to learn the cords to accompany the folk songs. Mom had an old guitar which had been in storage since she was a teenager. It had been a steel guitar which had all smooth strings and was played with it sitting on your lap with a steel bar to change the notes. Most of the strings were broken. I bought new strings for it and tried to learn some cords. But the strings sat too high to play fingered cords. So I cut down the string supports so I could play cords.

I bought a Pete Seegar Song Book and started learning some cords and some songs. It was a lot of fun. I even used some of those songs to serenade my future bride. I wasn't very good, but I think she did like being serenaded.

Music

I love music! I think I always have. When I was a very small lad, living in Boise, Idaho, I listened to popular music all the time. I liked the popular songs; the hits. I also loved 'Western' or 'Cowboy' music.

We listened to "My Hit Parade" every week. It was fun to hear them countdown the top hits of the day. I think they performed the top 7 hits each week. They had a regular cast and orchestra to do the numbers. They didn't use the original performers. I remember some of the names, Snooky Lansom, Gizelle McKenzie, Dorothy Collins. There were others, too, and occasional guest stars. The show picked up on television sometime in the 1950's. They were very much geared to 'Big Band' type music which was popular in the '30's and '40's. But they could not do 'Rock' music worth a darn, so the show tanked after that became popular.

Some of my favorite stars from when I was a kid were Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, and the Sons of the Pioneers for Western music. I also liked Kay Kaiser's and Spike Lee's bands and others that did humorous songs, like "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth". I really enjoyed the 'Big Band' stuff myself. Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby, Perry Como were some of my favorites there. Mario Lanza was always good. Louis Prima and Keely Smith did some good stuff, too.

In 1956 I discovered rock and roll music. Fortunately Mom and Dad liked it a little, so it was not banned like it was for some kids. When American Bandstand came on the TV in the afternoons, I always tried to catch it. I still like many of the songs from back then.

When I was about 8 years old we got a piano, and I started taking lessons. That did not come easy for me. I had very poor finger dexterity and just had a hard time with it. I practiced every day, but never seemed to make much progress. I did learn to read music and that was the best thing that came out of it. I had 2 different teachers. Mrs. Catmull lived on Westminster Ave. which was on my way to and from school at Dilworth Elementary. After I had taken lessons from her for about a year she told me that she was retiring from teaching and that I'd have to find someone else. However, as I passed her house on the way home from school each day, other kids would be in there taking lessons, still.

A few weeks later a man who had just immigrated from Holland stopped by the house. He rode a little motor bike. He offered to come by the house to teach piano. That lasted for about 2 years, and then he gave up on me, too.

When I was about 9 years old I began my singing career in Primary. I've told about that in a previous post. Then, in 6th grade I began to learn to sing parts. When I was in high school, many of my friends were in the school orchestra, or one of the choruses. I didn't seem to have room in my schedule, so I decided to try singing in the ward choir. I sang bass. I really enjoyed that. Choir music is very uplifting and inspiring. I continued singing in ward choirs for many years. It's difficult where we now live because of travel.

When I was at the University of Utah, I took a music appreciation class. Ardean Watts was the professor, and he really brought the music to life. It was a fun class, one of my very favorites from my college days. I still love the numbers we studied, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, Dvorak's New World Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, Smetana's The Moldau, Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto.

In 1971 we moved into the Butler llth Ward. The choir director was desperate for tenors, so she switched me and one other man who could also reach most of the higher notes. At first it was hard because I couldn't seem to hear the tenor part. I remember a solo I was supposed to sing during one choir presentation, where I couldn't find my note at all. I really butchered it. With practice I did learn to sing tenor in the choir. I still sing tenor to this day.

I really enjoy all types of music. Just scroll down through my playlist to see a very eclectic mix. There's rock and roll, opera, classical, country, a little bit of everything. If music is done well, with a strong melody, I enjoy almost every genre. Sometimes I just like a particular beat or rhythm. If it's done well, I'll probably like it.