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As a child, I couldn't stay away from the piano where I figured out tunes and songs. At age seven, after playing piano completely by ear for a year, I asked my parents for piano lessons. Yes - I asked them! They found me a wonderful classical piano teacher named Julie Collins. At my first recital - after only three months of lessons and despite being the youngest student, I was honored as the student deemed to have made the most progress that year. To the surprise of my parents, when it was time for the name of the honoree to be announced, I walked up to the piano and with my teacher performed "Coming Round the Mountain" I learned the basics of classical piano for four years and unbeknownst to my teacher managed to play more by ear and memory than by reading music. I accomplished this by listening to my teacher play each piece for me and memorizing it as soon as possible. During those beginning years I dreamed of being able to play anything I could imagine and then play.
At home, my father always played jazz records. I enjoyed the sounds of jazz, including the swinging rhythms, bass lines and improvisations. After requesting a jazz improvisational piece at the age of 11, my piano teacher saw clearly that I could benefit from and relate to jazz-specific lessons and I switched to a jazz teacher named Robert Lague. Over the next several years I learned basics of music theory, especially how they applied to jazz, and developed a very skilled ear for improvisation. I took lessons from several jazz teachers (including Ran Blake, Peter Cassino, Sandi Peaslee and Jeff Leonard) over a span of about six years to get different perspectives on jazz theory, styles, and improvisation techniques One of my favorite pianist was Windham Hill artist George Winston. I learned how to play several of his pieces, first starting with his improvisations and then adding my own improvisations to his music. By about age 17, I started composing my own original piano pieces which were very similar to the George Winston / Windham Hill style. At this time I was also very intrigued by harpist Andreas Vollenweider and started applying a harp/string like quality to my piano playing and compositions. All the while, I still enjoyed playing jazz standards, such as "Take the A Train" and "Misty", with more traditional jazz improvisation. I soon accomplished my dream of being able to play anything that I could imagine!
In 1992, I released my first CD True Reflections Solo Piano which was recorded and engineered by David Ackerman. This CD has a very gentle, meditative quality with much improvisation. I completed my second solo piano CD The Sound of Light Solo Piano in 1995. This CD has a more classical and arranged sound to each piece, yet still maintains the relaxing qualities of True Reflections. A few years ago, a friend told me about the web site called mp3.com where independent artists could showcase their works online at no charge to the listener. I showcased some of my tracks and have had phenomenal success ever since - receiving over one million unique listens to my music and having my CDs become top selling CDs in the Easy Listening genre. Recently, after receiving numerous requests for sheet music, I made Through the Kaleidoscope from my CD The Sound of Light available for purchase.
While I have a goal of having my music back a major motion picture, I've been delighted with the other types of music licensing projects that have come my way, including the highly rated video game web site orisinal.com. I have produced music for 3 orisinal.com games bubble bee, Voyage and Critical Zone and will be producing more soon. I welcome your feedback and questions about this web site! The best way for me to receive the feedback is at relax@stevencravis.com |
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