Karen Hedges and her husband George own Shiloh Music Center, a music store in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.  She has taught piano there for forty-five years.  Karen was instrumental in developing the Education Center at Shiloh which houses eighteen private music teachers who share nine studios.  Karen is active in many piano teacher organizations and is an expert on method books and supplementary materials for piano teachers, having hosted many composers and arrangers at her store for publisher-sponsored events.  Her teaching method is informed by her own lifelong learning, and by her desire to instill the love of music in her students regardless of level or style.  When she isn’t teaching, Karen can be found riding with George on their Harley.  


Shiloh Music Center

John W. Schaum

Piano Adventures | Disney

Hal Leonard | Star Wars

Alfred Music | Jazzin Americana

Piano Guild

National Federation of Music Clubs

Keith Snell Piano Series

Bastien New Traditions

Alfred Music | Premier Piano Course

Melody Bober

The Pianist’s Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Literature

Tom Gerou

Gayle Kowalchyk

Carol Tornquist

Ultimate Music Theory

Shiloh Music Center: Life Between the Lakes

Larry van Loon is a Nashville-based musician, performing live onstage locally and touring, as well as playing and producing in the studios. Born in Amsterdam, Larry grew up on the east coast, began young adulthood in the Rockies and eventually landed in Kansas City. He plays keyboards, piano, with a speciality in Hammond organ styles, and vocals. He’s equipped for remote tracking and records with artists around the globe.

He has performed, toured and/or recorded with artists as diverse as Matt “Guitar” Murphy, T. Graham Brown, Janiva Magness, Wayne Cochran, Al Green, Jesse Colter, Oleta Adams, Shaun Murphy, Bonnie Bramlett, Jo-El Sonnier, Marty Stuart, Gallagher as well as many contemporary blues touring artists, with a speciality in roots music from gospel, funk, r&r, deep soul, country and pop. For the last six years he has traveled coast to coast and overseas with the Andy T Band, featuring Texas guitar legend Anson Funderburgh and vocalists Nick Nixon and Alabama Mike. He recorded four albums with this group, three of which were nominated for BMA awards in the traditional blues and band categories.

Richard Groove Holmes - Misty

SS Andrea Doria

Central City, Colorado

Kansas City Blues Band

Oleta Adams - I’ve Got to Sing My Song

Everette Devan - Bye Bye Blackbird

International Blues Challenge

Nashville Blues Society Blues Jams

Victor Borge

Tom Lehrer - Poisoning Pigeons in the Park

Rita Don’t Live Here No More

Murph Wanca is the owner of Nashville Pro Hammond where he has repaired, rented and sold Hammond organs and their parts for the past 21 years.  As a young man, Murph travelled the country playing organ in various bands.  After moving to Nashville he was active as a musician and songwriter in the Contemporary Christian music scene.  He was working at Lorenz Creative Services when their Hammond organ broke down and on a whim, he decided to try to repair it.  This led to him subscribing to some online Hammond repair mailing lists where he made the acquaintance of the late Harvey Olsen and other Hammond experts who became his mentors and friends.  Murph credits local organist Rickey Jarrett with starting Nashville Pro Hammond as his first customer.   Murph has enjoyed much success working on these historic and incredible instruments for local churches, studios, and touring/professional musicians.  

Nashville Pro Hammond | Facebook

Nashville Pro Hammond

The Hammond Forum

Nashville Flood

Trek II Products

Thomas Organ Demo

The Executioners Youngstown Ohio

Killer B3: Hammond Organ Plant Chicago

Killer B3

Love is the Answer: 24 Songs of Faith, Hope, and Love

Tyrus Sass started teaching himself how to play keyboards at the age of fourteen.  He learned how to play by ear, transcribing the vocal parts in Gospel songs.  His father was a saxophonist and choir director who at one time toured with the Commodores.  Tyrus describes his obsession with music and harmony, the many mentors who have helped him, and his current gig with blues recording artist Jonny Lange.  We discuss the art of “hoopin’” (backing up the pastor in the African American church), and our mutual love of Hammond organs.  He also gives priceless advice on how to be completely confident in a gig, and how to find your space when joining an already-formed band.

Atlanta Doppler Studios

Hezekiah Walker- Jesus is My Help

MTSU- Recording Industry

Johnny Lang

Johnny Lang- Columbia Theatre Berlin

Herbie Hancock

Wikipedia- Flow State

Musician Tuts- Ear Training Apps

20 Inspirational Mentoring Quotes

Sam McCrary and The Mix

Benan Avci began studying piano when he was four years old with his mother, a private teacher in the suburbs of Chicago.  He was also a singer, trombonist and commercial pianist while growing up.  Majoring in choral education at the University of Illinois, he then became a high school choir teacher while moonlighting as a dueling pianist and entertainer at bar and fraternity party gigs.  After moving to Nashville, Benan became a sideman, touring with Jarrod Niemann and playing with various groups around Nashville such as the renowned multi-tribute band, MIPS.  He often performs at Brick House Dueling Pianos in Indianapolis, and is a singer/songwriter whose material can be found at www.benanmusic.com. 

National Association of Teachers of Singing

Piano Adventures

Hanon Online

Song Reader

Hemingbirds

What is MIPS- Facebook

What is MIPS

Howl at the Moon

The Art of Being a Sideman

KORG.org

Brickhouse Dueling Pianos

Opry Debut

Sandra Partridge has forged a path for herself with professionalism and artistic sensitivity.  Playing music can be fun.  It can also involve years of hard work.  Traditional music lessons are demanding and very skill-specific, meaning that a lot of time is directed to studying scores and learning how to be detail-oriented when representing historic musical works.  What does it really mean to study piano in college?  Being accepted to the major involves having a teacher in high school who knows how to coach for a successful audition.  Difficult pieces must be selected that display a pianist’s best traits.  Once the student is accepted and ideally, granted a scholarship, the reality is that music study demands commitment and total immersion.  Hours of daily practice, fast study, memorization, constant technical development, lesson preparation, music theory focus, and comprehensive music classes all day is typical fare.  When the piano major graduates, making the shift from solo piano study to making a living playing piano can be jarring and challenging.  The soloist mindset, which was so nurtured during the college years often doesn’t immediately translate into serving others.  

Turning to the music she loved the most, Sandra found her post-piano major path.  Inspired by Charlie Chaplin, she became a dance accompanist, transcribing movie themes and other dramatic music for the classes she accompanied.  Striving to understand, support and delight, Sandra also wrote a book to help other pianists discover the musical needs of dancers.  

In 2014, she became a comedy improv pianist and plays shows at the Third Coast Comedy Club in Nashville.  She shines in this musical comedienne role, using her extensive catalogue of pop culture riffs and extensive musical knowledge.  In the silliness of the shows, she has also found her joy and continues to evolve her voice.

Percy Grainger - Country Gardens

Ernesto Lecuona - Malagueña

Mendelssohn- Piano Trio in d minor, Op. 49 , 1st movement (Zukerman Trio)

Sewanee Summer Music Festival

Stravinsky - Sonata for 2 Pianos, 2nd movement (Ashkenazy, Gavrilov)

Brahms - Variations on a Theme by Haydn (Lupu, Perahia)

Boston Conservatory

Boston Ballet Center for Dance Education

LOL Nashville

LOL Nashville

Third Coast Comedy Club

Michael Pollack: Musical Direction for Improv and Sketch Comedy

Laura Hall: The Improv Comedy Musician: The Ultimate Guide to Playing Music with an Improv Group

In this episode, Brett Epstein describes his incredible evolution as a musician. Coming from a strong musical background as a multi-instrumentalist, Brett, who is a recent transplant to Nashville from LA has had a diverse career so far in the music business. From his college band days in Gainesville Florida as a drummer, to his focus on the piano at Berklee, Brett talks about his trajectory as a musician, composer, player and teacher.

After he graduated from the Berklee School of Music in Boston in 2003, Brett moved to Los Angeles. There he began producing his own songs and placing them on film and television.  During that period, he taught piano, worked in a sheet music store, briefly served as a music coordinator for a reality tv show, and performed on a cruise ship for four and a half months.  

Since moving to Nashville, Brett has focused on live music performance and just completed a mini tour in the late fall of 2018. Whether playing on lower Broadway, composing for documentaries or teaching, Brett’s story is all things funny, inspiring and educational.

Resources:

Brett Epstein Wikipedia

Bruce Hornsby and The Range- The Way It Is

Tom Hurst Presents Loud Jamz

How to Network in the Music Industry

Versatility is Key to Surviving the Music Business

Music Theory

Coral Princess Cruise Ships

7 Reasons People Love Magic

Episode 2: Adrian Heil

Adrian describes his musical journey of playing oboe in middle and high school, being a lead singer for awhile, and ultimately becoming a gigging rock, pop and funk keyboardist.  He discusses early musical influences such as his father, a singer and trombonist;  his grandmother, a church organist;  a couple of high school music teachers who exposed him to improvisation, theory and band;  and his bandmates in Kensington Stone who exposed him to composition and the music business. 

Adrian talks about influences Kyle Hollingsworth, Ray Manzarek, Theolonius Monk, and Prince.  We discuss ways to practice using drum loops to assist playing in time.  He also mentions the joy in playing tribute shows and the importance of learning about all of the keyboard instruments including stage pianos, organs, clavinet, rhodes, synthesizers, accordions and melodicas.  

Resources:

Kyle Hollingsworth

String Cheese Incident

Sweetwater Synthesizers

Ranker.com- Best Synth Rock Bands

RateYourMusic.com

Gizmodo: Beginner’s Guide to the Synth

Synth Basics 101

The Magic Behind Musical Notes

Funk Drum Loop Practice Tool

10 Worst Things About Playing the Oboe

Episode 1: Rachel Solomon

Listen to Rachel describe her process in becoming a professional keyboardist, singer and entertainer. She discusses topics such as growing up with a musical father; her Classical piano background; the influence from creative piano teachers such as Dave Limina and Bruce Katz; heroes such as Queen, Elton John, Regina Spektor, Paul McCartney and Billy Joel; the importance of versatility in the music business; the availability of notated improvisatory musical styles; ideas on how to stay in good technical shape; interesting gifts from fans; being on the road; playing hit songs with the artists who made them hits; solo piano bar work; making songs your own; what it’s really like to play different types of gigs; cruise ship and dueling piano work; and she closes the interview by playing her arrangement of the theme song from “The Splendid Table”.

Resources:

Rachel Solomon’s website, rachelsolo.com

“Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden (Rachel Solomon cover)

Piano Summit

School of Rock (Austin)

Berklee College of Music

Bruce Katz

Hammond Organ Complete by Dave Limina

Wedding Wire

“Poupee Valsante” (“The Dancing Doll”) by Ede Poldini