Let the Music Flow Through You

Hello everybody
How do you do?
We're here to sing
And play for you

So if you didn't get it yet, this post is about music, how I got into it, how it's affected me, and what it means to me. Music has played such a role in my life and it continues to be the driving force that keeps me moving forward.

Let's start at the beginning: for Christmas of 2007, my siblings and I got Guitar Hero 3 and that was my first taste of playing music. Prior to that, the only listening I did was what my mom put on (Garth Brooks and Josh Groban) and what my brother put on (Relient K, Blink 182, Bullet for my Valentine). After playing that game, I started opening my eyes and ears to all sorts of music. Culminating when I babysat for family friends and the oldest daughter played the electric guitar. That was the very first instrument I had ever touched (excluding recorders from middle school, but hey, who liked those?). My brother had an acoustic guitar but he didn't really ever touch it. I told my mom I wanted to get an electric guitar but she said I had to learn on my brothers guitar before I could buy one. After learning 2 riffs (Ironman and Smoke on the Water) and the G chord from my friend, Josh, I decided I wanted to play electric bass. I figured bass must be easier because it had less strings and my favorite sound in the world was Journey's Ross Valory's bass line during the chorus of "Don't Stop Believing." After bugging my parents about buying my own bass for a couple months, they gave me a Squier by Fender Jazz Bass for Christmas of 2008. I was thrilled. I learned all my favorite songs by tablature and developed basic skills on my own on that bass. Though I didn't bring my J-bass to college with me, it is still very much my baby. I once dropped her (all my guitars are shes by the way) on stage at a jazz choir/band concert. I almost walked off stage and cried. Luckily the only thing that happened to her was a lovely scuff on the bottom and several "drop the bass" jokes.

After that Christmas, we went down to my grandparents house and I took my J-bass with me and my uncle gave me his 115w Fender Solid State Twin Reverb amp from the 70s. Though it was a guitar amp, I used it for my bass all the time. I still play around with it whenever I go home (it's too big for my dorm room). Along the way, I absorbed my brothers old Española acoustic guitar (ironically made in china) and a Yamaha FG-230 12-string acoustic that was my dad's that I found in the attic. Later that year, my friend Luke was moving away and gave me his old Squier Stratocaster electric guitar that he had only played once and forget about.

I had only been playing for a year before I started wanting to experiment with new sounds from new guitars. So after doing a whole lot of research, I decided to save up and buy a ESP LTD B-55 5-string electric bass. I chose it because it had both J style and P style pickups and active tone boost (basically, a battery in the guitar gives the sound a bigger punch, if that makes sense). The next Christmas I bought an Epiphone Thunderbird because it had humbucker pickups that so many of my favorite artists used. To tally: I had 3 electric basses, 2 acoustic guitars (one 6-string and one 12-string), and 1 electric guitar. And the only formal training I got was an intro to guitar class at school that only really taught me the G scale, the 28 basic chords, and a handful of songs.

A year later, I was a junior in high school and my senior friends were getting ready to graduate. Wanting to remember each and every one of them and how they affected my life, I decided I wanted them to sign my 6-string acoustic so that they would inspire any music I'd write on that guitar. After 7 months of organizing to meet up with people and driving to meet them, I finally got all 52 of them to sign it. Still today, this is the only guitar I can successfully write music on.

During the spring of my senior year, I found out I'd be working at Philmont Scout Ranch over the summer (see previous post for more info on PSR) and I'd be performing a campfire show every night. I had to decide on which instruments I'd take and that ultimately resulted in me choosing the Yamaha because it was the most country/folk/bluegrass guitar I had. But before I left, my parents got me an Ibanez Artwood acoustic-electric guitar for my birthday. Well, I clearly had no other option than to take both guitar with me. And boy am I glad I did. At Philmont, I grew so much as a musician in terms of playing more smoothly, learning on the fly, and improvisational skills.

Finally I did get one last guitar. It was before this past Christmas and it was a Michael Kelly Dragonfly 5-string acoustic-electric bass. It was and still is the most beautiful instrument I've ever seen. Quilted maple finish, rose vine inlays, expert craftsmanship. Just gorgeous. In case you didn't keep up, here's all the guitars I own:

Squier Jazz Bass
ESP LTD B-55
Epiphone Thunderbird
Michael Kelley Dragonfly
Española acoustic
Yamaha FG-230
Ibanez Artwood
Squier Stratocaster

Yeah I know, that's a lot.

However, these are not all the instruments I play. In my senior year, I joined my school's drumline and learned how to play a variety of percussion instruments. I won't call myself a drummer, but I'm competent with just about any percussion instrument.

Finally, I can sing as well. But this skill is still fairly new. I had always sung under my breath or in the shower but never anywhere else. Senior year, I decided I'd try as many things as I could as a final hoorah and I considered auditioning for the musical. Audition week rolled up and I still wasn't sure. Auditions were Wednesday and Friday, and Wednesday night I was still unsure of auditioning. That night I went to my youth group and played guitar in the band as usual. We got to a song, Needtobreathe's "Washed by the Water" (a song that was the theme song to a retreat that changed my life) and the song leader said he didn't know this song that well. The girl singing next to me, Coco, chirps up and says, "Oh Colin knows this one!" And before I could protest, they had already started playing. Too late. I'm in front of the bus. So I mustered up all the guts I had and gave it my all. Now the start was a lil shaky but I impressed myself with the rest of it. Then and there, I decided to audition, I then spent the next two days memorizing my audition piece and monologue. My audition piece was "Be a Man" from Mulan. And it was awesome. My audition landed me the role of President Roosevelt in our production of "Annie." I got comfortable with my voice there and I gained control over my voice at Philmont in the summer. I then went on to join the men's choir in college as well.

Even after learning all that, I still want to learn mandolin, harmonica, piano, banjo, and violin in that order.

Music has always been the way I deal with my emotions. When I was sad, I'd either listen to something to cheer me or something sad to make me feel less alone. When I was mad, I'd listen to something to get me to blow off steam and relax. When I was happy, I'd listen to something that made me want to dance around my room. Music carried me through all the best and worst times in my life. The ultimate punishment for me was taking away my iPod. Music was what kept my uneasy mind at bay and away from bad thoughts. Life without music was absolute torture.

To me, music helps me do everything. It's my sweet escape, inward reflection, statement of identity, connection to God, and my glorious release. I don't know where'd I'd be today without the inspiration of music.


Until next time, good night, good luck, and God bless Ronald Reagan and the fine folks at CZ.

-CP III

The Story of the Nicknames

Hello again.

As I mentioned before, I do go by many different nicknames to many different people, so I'll just tackle them one at a time.

CP (or CP III)
Simplified, CP is my initials but it was never used until I was playing ultimate frisbee one day after school.  While picking teams, two guys were collaborating on their next pick.  Their decision came as followed:

Vinny: "Alright, we'll take Colin."
Me: "WOO!"
Deuce: "Ay CP!"

He said it and it kinda stuck.  So the ultimate players started me calling that all the time and other people started to pick up on it.  Now CP III came from one guy, Aaron, that sat behind me in one of my classes.  This was early in 2012 and Robert Griffin III had just won the Heisman and Perry Jones III was in the national spotlight in college basketball.  So with RG3 and PJ3, Aaron slapped a 3 to the end of my nickname.  I liked it and still do.

Cone
The only person who calls me this is my buddy Audi (aw-dee, not ow-dee) but its one I don't mind.  He got to "Cone" because he knew it irritated me when people would write my name with two L's instead of when so he'd write it with three and then one day he just removed them all and tried to say my name and he came up with Cone and he just hasn't stopped calling me that.

Cal
This one's a good story.  Right after I graduated from high school I began working at Philmont Scout Ranch in the Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico.  Philmont is the premier backpacking experience in the world and has 25-30,000 participants in any given summer.  Participants spend 10 days hiking through the backcountry, camping at both staffed and unstaffed camps.  Well I spent my summer working at one of those staffed camps.  Our camp was called "Clarks Fork."  Now, the theme to the camp is that its a group of ranch hands living and working on the ranch in the year 1950.  With it being a different time and place, we all had to create our own characters and backstories.  The character I created was "Calvin T. Simms," or Cal for short. I would answer to this name all the time for the summer and I'm fairly certain I'll still answer to it.

Doc
I got this one back in sophomore year of high school when I was basically playing match maker with my friends and their crushes and helping them get together.  For the most part, their relationships worked out really well and I got called Doctor Love by someone and Doctor Feelgood by another.  So Doc stuck around for a while.

Well, those are all the nicknames I still go by, so good night, good luck, and God bless Ronald Reagan and the fine folks at CZ.

-CP III

So, It Has Come To This

Oh Hi!

Didn't see ya there.

Well what can be said? I decided to start this blog after I found out a couple of my friends have their own so I figured, "Eh, why not?"

Well, I wanna get into writing as a form of expression and what better way than through a blog.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Colin, but feel free to call me CP, Cone, Cal, or Doc.  Those nicknames all have their own stories and I'll get to those eventually.  To add a little more about myself: I'm a climber, outdoorsman, student, gamer, petrol-head, and musician.  If you wanna learn more, just stick around for a couple posts, you'll get a better idea about who I am then. 

To get a basic idea of what this blog will be about, it'll mostly be my quandries, random thoughts, rants, crazy ideas, and just various stories from my life.  Sometimes it'll be serious and sometimes funny, just depends on how I'm feeling that day.

Just to let you know, the title of this comes from a song called "Colfax County Jail" by The Tobasco Donkeys.  Why is that the title you ask? Well, cuz I like that song, and that's my favorite line in it.  And because this blog will be my way to settle the score with my shyness.  You'll see.

Hopefully you stick around awhile, there's more to come, I promise.

In the meantime, good night, good luck, and God bless Ronald Reagan and the fine folks at CZ.

-CP III