When I was 12, I started learning the tuba, and thus became a tubateer. And yes, that is what we call ourselves. From then until when I quit doing band in college, I played tuba in large and small ensembles. I was also in Utah’s All-State band, as well as a concert band, a dixieland jazz band, and a choir that went to western Europe for a summer to play concerts. My first year of college I received a tuba performance scholarship.

In junior high, I found my dad’s old four-string tenor banjo in the attic, and began to learn how to play banjo. Later, I got my own five-string banjo. I went on to be the official banjo player of my high school’s Dart Club. I would also play my brother’s guitar when he was not home (It’s a secret to everybody).

By the time I was a freshman, I was writing my own songs. Except on tuba. That came later. Although I have always made up my own parts for the school band (That’s also a secret to everybody).

In my sophomore year of high school, I formed my first band. I bought a bass, because of the four of us, three knew how to play guitar and I was the only one of those who did not actually own one. We we very much a classic rock / oldies influenced band. Throughout high school, I was also in a metal band playing bass, a folky 3-chord band, and an alternative punk rock band playing guitar. I sang in all those bands, and somewhere in there I picked up the mandolin, too. Also, I learned how to run a mixing board and do live sound for bands. Since, I have also recorded groups during concerts.

That is also the year when I started playing the sousaphone in my 300+ member high school marching band. We marched in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif. the next year.

My junior year, I started playing trombone. I was in the high school’s jazz band, and went on to play in two different jazz bands in college, as well as a couple of small jazz combos. My senior year, I was a musician in a Disney movie, “Going to the Mat.”

After high school, I was in a hard rock band for the summer before I moved to college.

When I went to college I joined a ska / reggae / rock / ragtime / swing / funk band called Viewers Like You. I have played bass, trombone, tuba and now keyboards. Sometimes I sing, too. One of our long running gigs is a back-up band for a comedy improv group.

I have been part of USU’s Independent Music club since 2009. I also played bass in a couple of cover bands. I also do my own acoustic thing, sometimes with some other people. In 2008, I won a bluegrass guitar contest.

After college, I got a big-boy job and started playing trombone with The Beam Me Up Ska-T's, another ska band there (partly because one of the trumpet players in the BMUSTs is the brother of the trombone for VLY).

In my big-boy job, I have helped coordinate the band at a company event for all of our employees. Months later, instead of hiring a band for an event for our company's clients, I formed a band from employees and helped coordinate that.

And once, I even helped choreograph a dance. That is my experience with music.