Everyone knows a white kid with a guitar. That's me. My journey began, however, with piano lessons I'd have rather not taken. 

When I was seven, my mother signed me up for piano lessons. My reaction was similar to Calvin, of Calvin & Hobbes fame: "Why can't I do something useful, like take driving lessons?" Six years later, that attitude took a 180-degree turn. A friend of a schoolmate showed me that playing piano didn't have to be drudgery; it occurred to me, while watching him, that he actually enjoyed playing piano. Like those stories you hear, something in me clicked. I've loved the piano ever since. 

​

During my teenage years, I developed an affinity for classical and romantic music. (My appreciation for classical music of the twentieth century is still developing.) My piano teacher introduced me to blues jazz, and I fell in love immediately. Soon, however, I realized blues jazz is not the same as the cool jazz of one of my heroes, Dave Brubeck. Learning how to play Brubeck is an altogether different beast from Mike Cornick's slow jazz. It encouraged me to learn difficult songs which give that peculiar fulfillment that comes only after a song becomes second nature.

 

But these paragraphs only answer how I became interested in music. They don't address my English major, nor my omnivorous love of music. For the former, read on; for the latter, my first blog post will give my ongoing foray into the music world in more detail, as well as a roadmap for where this blog will travel, and where it won't. 

Halfway through college pursuing a degree in History, I took an elective that would change my college path. As a fourth-choice elective (the other three choices had prerequisites or monetary fees I didn't have the cash for), I took American Literature II. (Surprisingly, Am. Lit. I was not required.) As with blues jazz, I fell in love with English. I added it as a second major the following semester, and the rest is history. 

Since graduation, my career hasn't looked quite as I envisioned. This blog, thus, is a way to prove I did, in fact, graduate with honors in English. Additionally, my liberal-arts brain continually pesters me to use it to write. I kill two birds with one stone with this blog, then: For potential employers, I offer these articles as a partial portfolio; for like-minded music enthusiasts, these articles offer my amateur opinions and thoughts on many musical genres, music artists, and albums.

​

Enjoy, and thanks for reading. 

-Jos