PureVolume

I got up at 6 am for 9 and a half years to practice the piano. In all that time alone with it, I developed quite an attachment to it. I've taken what I've learned and, after passing it on to students for 3 years, developed a sound I like to call my own. Sit back, and take a listen. Hope you enjoy!

A few words about these songs:

"Days of Remembrance"- This was the first song I ever wrote in its totality. I spent a few months playing around with melodies and such before I got serious about putting something together. The original melody is in the opening lines, but it went through a lot of changes and edits before it got to where it is now. One section, just a measure or so (starting at 1:32), that I'm particularly proud of, I wrote during a sermon at church on a Sunday morning. I was sitting there and this little line just popped into my head. I scribbled it down as best I could on the back of my church bulletin, and forced myself to hum it all during Bible class. I got some weird looks, too.

"Lauren's Song"- I wrote this song for one of my closest friends. We dated in high school, and have miraculously remained close even now in college. I wrote this song in the first 5 months we were together. Usually, it's kinda hard to find melodies and such, you have to work at it sometimes. Ironically, here it wasn't lack of melodies, but too many! The piece was a monster to put together. I had so many melodical thoughts to sort through, then pick several and mesh them together. The opening lines were inspired by a Jon Schmidt piece, "All of Me." I'm a huge Jon Schmidt fan. The last lines, namely the chord rhythms and progressions in the bass, came from the simple Green Day song "Time of Your Life." It all came together into this song. It taught me to pay attention to music all around you and learn to make the stuff that you like work its way into your music. I start a piece of music and it basically writes itself, I just have to keep up is all.

"Rachel's Song"- Lauren has 2 younger sisters, Rachel and Sara. I've felt like a brother to them, and they like sisters to me. I've written all 3 of them a piece, but Sara's I'm still polishing. The melody for "Rachel's Song" came to me in the middle of the night, literally. I woke up at like 3 am with this melody running through my head. I ran to the piano and figured it our, crudely, so I wouldn't forget it. The next day I started working on it. I had the whole thing written, except the ending, just a few weeks later. The ending was eluding me. How do I end a song like this? Then, Rachel and I were throwing the football around at their grandmother's house and this simply line just popped into my head. Back at their house, I sat down and wrote it out on a sheet of notebook paper and played the whole thing for the first time right there. It was quite memorable.