MUSIC

Music has been a big part of my life ever since age 2 when I learned how to change Johnny Cash records on my folks' console stereo. I picked up banjo at age 8, drums at age 10, and bass at age 12, and by age 14 I was playing in clubs and at other functions around my hometown of Jackson, TN. Forwarding the clocks to the present, I have a music career playing alongside many wonderful people onstage and in studio.

RUSH

The summer before 7th grade I was hanging around some older kids in a grocery store parking lot when I heard something that changed the course of my life forever. My friend Jimmy Riggins had just gotten a new cassette tape by Rush called Moving Pictures, and popped it in his truck stereo, and I heard a song called Tom Sawyer for the first time. At that moment I knew I wanted to play the bass. I played Dwight Woodard's dad's '72 Fender Telecaster bass at his house for many months before finally getting my own, and immediately started learning every Rush song in existence. I feel very indebted to Rush and bassist Geddy Lee for providing the groundwork for me to learn my instrument, which has provided much joy and a living for many years.

Me with Alex Lifeson & Geddy Lee of Rush

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TAX PREPARATION

In 1986 I started studying the tax code to be able to file my own tax returns, and, rolling the clocks forward to 2010, I am an Enrolled Agent, enrolled to represent tax clients before the Internal Revenue Service, and am doing around 500 tax returns a year and scored in the highest percentile in the nation in Individual Tax on the CPA exam. Check out the MusicianTax.com or SpecialtyTax.net for more information.

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PERFECT PITCH, HOW I DO IT AND HOW TO GET IT!

The thing about me that has blown people’s mind for many years is how I can hear a note, a chord, the key to a song, and tell you exactly what it is, just by hearing it, with no instrument, no pitch pipe, no cheating! There’s really not much to the “gift” of perfect pitch, and I will share that with you here. When you think of your favorite bands, Beatles, Eagles, Steely Dan, Rush, and think of a song that they do, don’t you usually hear the tune in your head pretty close to the key that the song is actually in? Like the key of E, Rush The Spirit of Radio, Rush Tom Sawyer, Beatles Day Tripper, and Eagles Life in the Fast Lane! Chances are, when you hear it in your head, you hear it in the same key as it’s in. That’s what I do, I have memorized over my entire lifetime certain pieces of music in the original key, and that’s how I find notes. For example, I memorized on the 6 string bass, BEADGC open strings, I memorized in marching band the tuning notes of F, Eb and Bb, so there’s my 8 notes that I can recall just like that, so that only leaves out F#, G#, C#, which I figure out if it’s not one of the 8 notes I memorized. And, I have certain songs  memorized in their original keys; I’ll list some of them here. Carl Perkins Movie Magg (E) and Everybody’s Trying to be My Baby (E), Rush Tom Sawyer (E), Billy Idol Rebel Yell (B), Cheap Trick Dream Police (E), Journey Separate Ways (E), Jackie Ward Big Blue Diamonds (G), Eagles Life in the Fast Lane (E), and Ace Cannon Memphis (D). So, there’s really no magic trick, it’s mainly about really listening to songs you’ve heard for years and figuring out the key they’re in and just remembering it! Now, some times I can’t remember my own name (just kidding), but these tunes and these notes I can never forget, and yes, it does drive me crazy to hear tunes when they’re just a little sharp or a little flat, anyway, take what I’ve said and see if you can make perfect pitch work for you, it’s just memorization for the most part. I use perfect pitch every day onstage and in the studio, and the more you use it, the stronger it gets. It’s honestly the only chance I’ve ever had as a musician, just a knack for remembering notes! Good luck acquiring perfect pitch for yourself!