Hi, my name is James Kiely and I was born in the United Kingdom and I've lived there all my life. Not that you can have too much change at only 13.
I started playing piano about 6 years ago at the age of 7 (I Think) with those simple pieces you get that are mostly about the postman and the day of a frog. These were mainly to taught to me by my mum.
I eventually decided to see a teacher who I didn't get on with and tried to avoid lessons with "illness" and other on the spot excuses. She had begun to teach me the simple Entertainer but I was having a huge difficulty in reading the music.
After a lesson one night she told my Mother, in front of my face, that I certainly wasn't meant to play piano and had no skills for music. So you can see why that didn't work out.
I gave up for some time, but my family -thinking I had talent- persauded me to move on. Which I did; To another teacher who taught me jazzy pieces and soon introduced me to the style of Boogie Woogie.
I was still finding it difficult to understand the music, and this was only about a year or two ago. We found out this was becuase I have Irlen Syndrome and need specially tinted glasses to help my brain percept things in the correct way.
She later introduced me to Daniel Smith, who was playing in a theatre nearby.
I was so amazed by the style I decided to have a few lessons with him (rather costly ones too) and much enjoyed playing imporvised because of my lack of reading music.
I still play improv today and still cannot understand any musical notation. I have also been playing Drums for the past year, but have found it is no competition for my love of playing piano.
I also come from a rather musical family.
My Mum likes to think she played a part (Awful Pun, I Know) in my piano skills by playing a lot while I was still inside her.
She also plays cello and is very modest that she is Grade 8.
My brother plays Cello, but mainly rythm guitar in a band called "Kiely and the Minouges".
And my Dad had convinced himself he is not musical at all but, in previous years, has played guitar very well.
Feel free to email me at james-kiely@hotmail.co.uk or we can chat on the Forum
I recently decided to record some Videos and post them on YouTube.
On You Tube I'm known as greasycookingpot
I am also hoping to make some MP3 recordings next Summer.
Enjoy!