Trav's Music page

It's said that "Bach gave us God's song, Mozart gave us God's laughter, Beethoven gave us God's fire, God gave us music that we might pray without words."

Have you ever noticed, while watching a film, how the music can make your pulse quicken, and alter your mood? Music is indeed a 'powerful medium'.

Music has been a part of my life since I was about three, when my Grandma started teaching me piano.
Grandma will always have a special place in my heart for introducing and teaching this art to me.

I've played quite a few defferent genres, including Rock, Jazz, Gospel, Contemporary Christian, Classical, Bluegrass and Country. The instruments I've played include: guitar (acoustic and electric), bass (electric guitar and acoustic upright), piano, organ, synths, trombone, coronet, violin, harmonica, accordian, sax, and the uke. Let me clairfy this, while I've played these instruments, I'm really only proficient with a few. I'd have to say my favorite classes of instruments would be strings, followed by electric bass and piano/synths. Presently I'm a member of the Worship Team at Abundant Life Assembly of God, Virginia, where I play the bass, synths and ocassionally, piano.

Trivia: Did you know that the piano is a percussion instrument? Yes, it's related to the drums!
This is because felt hammers strike the strings. It was a 'breakthrough' in percussion keyboard instruments, being the 1st that could be played at different volumes -
and it's full name - is ' Piano-Forte' meaning 'soft and loud'.

My current listening tastes are a bit diverse, ranging from Blues, Jazz, Light Rock and Classical... though I've listened to all, my favorite styles are: Contemporay Christian Rock, Easy Listening, Jazz and Classical.
My 'stable' includes a Baldwin Acrosonic piano, Sigma DR-7 acoustic guitar, Gibson EB-0 bass, and three synths: a Yamaha DX-27 (FM based), Roland XP-30 (wavetable), and a 'fun toy' with a totatlly cool user interface: an Alysis Air-Synth.

The Synths...
I have the XP (as a controller) midi'd with the DX. I use the DX for it's 'bright/thinner and 'hard synth' type sounds. The DX responds to, but does not have, a velocity sensitive keyboard. (The XP is both velocity and pressure sensitive). More info and photos of the DX is availible here and on the Air synth - here.
The Roland is the more 'powerful-versatile' instrument here, but even though it can accurately 'synthesize' a bass sound, I still prefer playing the bass for a bass part. I especially like the pianos, pads (usually an 'ambient' type of sound - click here for an example of "Majesty Pad" - one of the 'patches' from the 'Vintage Synth' expansion card) (2,631 KB wav format)... organs (nice B-3's especially on the vintage expansion), the sax's are great, and the steel drums are a lot of fun! Can't forget the sound efx... and the vocal patches - incredible!
Noteworthy Accolades:
But don't just take my word for it, read other opinions/reviews here: Harmony Central.
Rolands have been used in Hollywood for soundtracks (Reference at: Roland US).
What would a 'music' page be without... some music?!? To hear what this Roland can do, I've made availible (in MP3 fomat) two of the demos included onboard the synth. All music was recorded using only the synthesizer's on board effects processor, with no external processing, EQ or reverb.
With proper software (a sequencer) a composer can 'mix' (combine 'midi tracks') complete songs like these: Click here for a classical demo 'Shadow's March' (2,600 KB), and here for 'All in Good Time'(1,823KB)'a jazzy - easy listening demo (it's one of my favorites).

(that means 'the end'!)