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