Ole Cram's Music

Update on things:

I have been so blessed since putting my old stored keyboards back up and composing again since around January of this year. God has given me so many new instrumental compositions (nearly 70 since end of January). He gave me two today as I had an extra hour to myself (yippie!!!) and used that to create another composition. You can find both of today's compositions on the Music Videos section of this website for June 3^rd, 2012.

I have our six littlest ones still at home (nine children total) so I don’t get time to myself until they go to bed around 7:30 p.m.  At that time, my wife can unwind in the living room as I head off to the garage to see what God gives me for the day. Usually He gives me a complete song within 30 minutes to 1 hour. After that, I spend most of my garage time retaking video after video of the song until I feel it is good enough to publish to you all.  Sometimes I can get a good recording in less than five tries. The average is probably about 25 to 50 tries. Several times I have gone as high as 300 tries (only about four complex songs required that over about 4 hours!).  However, I don’t give up when His music needs to be shared. That gives me the determination to keep trying until I get it right. Usually I only spend from 1 to 2 hours in the garage so that works out good. Then my wife and I have the rest of the evening to relax as I upload the video to YouTube and my various other sites.

After being away from composing for nearly 20 years, I LOVE this time of God's grace to let me have all this music. He is so good.  Also, thank you for being loyal fans. You are greatly appreciated more than you know.

Ole

I had a person ask me how I had so successful both professionally and musically after looking at my music and my financial blog (http://accreditedinvestortalk.blogspot.com).  The answer I gave back is that I've learned to fail well.

I know this is a diversion from what you would expect to be a blog on music.  However, it does reflect my personal thoughts and might therefore be of interest to you as part of getting to know me.

One thing I have learned is that everyone goes through trials at some point in their life.  I don’t know anyone who has not had to work through adversity at least once.  The difference in how people deal with “failure” seems to determine which ones rise to become “successful” and which ones try to avoid additional hurts.  Personally, I have hit rock bottom emotionally and financially quite a few times in my life.  Not intending to preach here, but I have an unshakable faith in a God that has always been there for me through each of those trials.  He does not prevent trials from happening and many of the times they were of my own selfish or greedy doing. However, He does always give me a way out and let me learn.  Without feeling his presence over the years, I would not have made it through on my own.

I do believe these failures have taught me so much and made me into a stronger/better person through Jesus my personal Christ. I also believe since we all experience “failure” in life, learning to become an overcomer is the key.  Learning to pick up the pieces, to rearrange them into a new foundation, and to create a new start on an evolving basis after each failure is what allows you to eventually create a very strong foundation with solid walls and support for your “success”.  I teach my kids that they must first learn to fail before they can become successful. Learning to fail well will teach you not be afraid of failure, expect that it will eventually come, but to plan for it.  Learn how to use failure as a means to successful planning and execution of your ideas, goals, and dreams.

Understand that “Success” means different things to each of us.  To me, success is my walk in Jesus and having a wonderful family that I love and that loves me.  Everything else is just additional blessings being given to me.  I hope to be in a position at some point in the future where I can turn around and help many others to accomplish their dreams as well.  In the meantime, I wait and trust faithfully in what each day brings on this journey called life. 

Ole

Hello fans. Our journey together has officially begun with the start of this blog.  Looking forward to sharing my musical journey with you. Perhaps we should start with a little background on myself.

 I grew up in a very musical family with one brother and three sisters.  Three of my siblings are between seven and ten years older than me so mom and dad thought they had it figured out before I came along. However, I broke the mold in many areas. We'll have to save those insights for another time. Ha! Anyway, my parents required that all of us take piano lessons from first grade through senior high.  Along with that, we all played different instruments in school band, some sang in choir, and some acted in school plays.  So theater and the arts were very strongly encouraged.

Me? Well, I took piano lessons till I was a junior in high school. Having said that, my lessons were not the same as for my older siblings.  I would go through the motions of the lesson. However, at home I would spend my time composing instrumental songs on the family's seven foot Steinway piano.  What an absolutely amazing instrument to draw out my creative abilities. I would spend hours each day making up songs, but not getting my lessons practiced. So, every week I would play my latest compositions for the teacher.  She would then have me go over the lesson and come back next week.  I did not progress far at all in my sight reading abilities, but was evolving in creating songs.

As I grew in my abilities, each year a Christmas present would be a new electronic keyboard, a PA system, drums, cymbals, etc.  At age ten I got my first trap drum set and played that with the same creative passion.  There was one song I created in junior high where one hand played the grand piano, the other played an electronic keyboard, one foot was playing the base drum, and the other foot was playing the snare drum with a stick in my toes!!!! That was CRAZY!

My parents were members of the Music Club, a group of people in the community who strongly supported the arts and encouraged musicians to perform in the local theater.  Many times as a kid when the club met at our house, I would play a song or two on the piano.  As my abilities grew, I eventually gave a full performance for the Music Club.  During my high school years I gave concerts locally and around the state of Kansas in schools as part of a grant to educate children on synthesizers and composing music.  All this time I did record my compositions an still have those many hours of compositions on tape.  A project I hope to accomplish in the future is to create a historical timeline of my compositions in digital format that you could listen to on a special section of this website.  Right now I'm having too much fun creating new songs on my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/olecrammusic. 

Fast forwarding, I continued creating new compositions and giving performances until marriage in 1992.  I since took off all these years to raise my kids and focus on the family.  In the past year I have been able to create a space again to set up my keyboards and drums for reenergizing the creative juices.  This has truly been a journey coming back full circle again. My desire is to share the music God blesses me with you - my fans. Currently that is only available through my YouTube channel.  I hope to start creating digital recordings that you can play as well. This blog will let you know when that is available.

Thank you!!!! This is really fun for me and I hope the same for you.  Please stay tuned as I keep you informed on my reawaking journey.

Ole