Music is everywhere and we are all exposed to it in some way. However, the house I grew up in always had music playing. My older siblings played music on the stereo (as Americans used to call it) or hi-fi as it was called when I was a kid. I later discovered that both my mom and dad used to sing. I knew that my mom had a good voice from hearing her sing in church. She had a powerful soprano voice which could be heard above the other voices during Sunday worship. As a child it used to embarrass me which was so terrible when I think back on it. Now I am proud of my mom for using her voice and not being afraid to use it. Two of my sisters had taken formal piano lessons and our grandfather had given them a piano which I loved. I would play by ear and make up my own songs all in the key of C obviously!

I took a few formal piano lessons, thanks to my brother Ross and his wife, Shirl. But I didn't quite enjoy those initial lessons as I was frustrated with learning the basics which I definitely needed to learn first. A few years later I went back to taking formal lessons while in high school and I managed to stick with it for a couple of years. This proved to be very useful as I learnt all the major scales which, in terms of jazz studies, covers all of the modes basically. I never really mastered sight reading, but I learnt the basics of music theory which was very useful.

I would always be involved in playing the piano at church in a basic way. Either at the informal weekly Friday youth services and later on as part of the worship team on Sundays. While working as a software developer in the UK, I attended HTB (Holy Trinity Brompton) for number of years and was part of the worsip team there. I always had a desire to study music formally and to do it professionally but never had the confidence or plan to make that happen. I eventually became extremely restless about not studying music and about not giving a career in music a shot. I finally decided to throw caution to the wind and jump into the music thing fulltime in my late twenties.

I prepared by doing a grade 5 theory exam and a jazz piano exam. I then used those certificates to apply to the South African university, UKZN. I was accepted into the BMus jazz performance programme. I stayed for two and a half years but unfortunately, I eventually dropped out of university for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless it was an extremely fruitful experience and I learnt so much about jazz piano and music in general. Making a living as a musician can be extremely challenging. As a result, I returned to fulltime IT work and did music on a part-time basis, as a side-hustle.

My musical journey has been an exciting one, but challenging at times. Nevertheless, I am grateful for all my experiences. I have played in a hip-hop band, performed in a duo with a singer and have done some solo piano work. My desire is to now allow the Lord to use my gift. As a result I don't have any plans just yet, but I am confident that I will be using my musical gifts in the future.