When I find time, I pursue several modes of musical expression.
Live Performance
I play several instruments with varying degrees of success:
- Piano
- Keyboards (strongly preferring my Nord G2X and Nord Stage)
- Flute
- Electric bass
- Acoustic guitar
- Harmonica
- Electric guitar
- Upright bass
I can sightread a piano piece like this Clementi sonatina and carry on a conversation at the same time.
With time, I can learn most piano compositions, though my classical chops are rusty these days. In college I learned the first movement of Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor, which was probably the most advanced repertoire I learned.
On the other end of the musical spectrum, if a band is playing a song I don't know, as long as someone's yelling the chords before we hit them, I can play along without much difficulty.
I have been in several (defunct) rock bands, and have also played in classical and pop orchestral settings.
I learned upright bass primarily to play bluegrass, which I did for several years in my late teens.
I played quite a bit of worship music for Hershey Free Church over my decades of attending there, including a stint as the primary keyboard player for the main services.
I have also played a fair amount of harp-and-flute duet music with my sister Hannah, at venues as disparate as the Whitaker Center and the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire.
Recording
In April of 2020 I made a goal to record at least one small snippet of music daily. I publish those at noise.nateeag.com.
Arrangement
I have arranged several pieces for harp and flute, as Hannah and I sometimes found ourselves lacking good arrangements for a given need.
I was a primary driver of the arrangements in most of the bands I have played in, including Hershey Free's worship band(s).
I did most of the arranging (and the piano and keyboard performance) on Classical Academic Press's Veni Emmanuel CD.
Songwriting
On occasion, I have been known to write lyrical songs.
This usually happens as parody or off-the-cuff improvised lyricism, and little of it has been written down. Most of what I have written down is incomplete fragments.
Composition
I have an interest in composing instrumental music.
In some ways, composition is a natural outgrowth of improvisation and arranging, and most of my 'composition' has taken exactly that form - ephemeral snippets of melody, harmony, and rhythm that were not captured in an archiveable medium.
Of those that were recorded or written, many were lost in a hard drive crash years ago.
However, some pieces survive.