Well, I'd say I started getting interested in music when I found a radio in an old building by my parents house.

And when I was about third grader and mom said it didn't work, and I had to try it out anyway, and started turning into KOMA and WKY and listening.

I don't know for sure why I picked those stations, because my parents didn't listen to those stations, but they just attracted me, I guess.

And from then on, I just I was an avid music listener.

Eventually, when I was in the eighth grade, a bunch of us guys said, well, let's get together and have a band.

So so-and-so played guitar, another guy played drums, another one bass.

And I said, well, I'll buy a microphone.

That went on for a year.

And then I, the guitar player talked me into playing guitar, and from then on, guitar is really the only thing I wanted to do.

I went ahead and went to college just in case I wasn't famous rock and roll guitar player and, I became a music major and went to school in Alva for a couple of years, came to Oklahoma Christian and then did my master's at UCO.

During that time, I started teaching at Rose state.

What happened was I had a studio and somebody says, well, why don't you teach a class about that?

So I put together a syllabus and got all the right authorization and so forth, and it worked really well.

She takes her set shop and spends his cash to feel better.

I think what it takes to make a good engineer, sound engineer is a love for music and a desire to get that music recorded and get it out to people.

She's alive and she's driving her mid life Chrysler.

I do think that that teachers ought to be involved in what they're teaching.

If you don't play guitar, you shouldn't be teaching it.

If you don't, if you don't sound engineer, then you shouldn't teach it.

But sure, we have some of the samples we did in class, which were just voice sounds and looks like hi hat and some snare stuff, even though it's not really a snare, is it?

No, it's another voice.

Voice sounds.

Yeah, I like to teach because it gives me, a time with the students, new kids every semester, every few semesters.

And, it's they're always bringing things in for me to listen to.

It keeps.

Keeps me feeling young when you hang out with a bunch of kids all day, you sometimes feel much younger.

If you ever ask Craig for a comment, about anything, you be.

You very, very seldom actually, get one.

And he actually once told me one time, if I don't say anything, then just take it as good, because if I say anything, it's usually going to be a bad comment.

So.

So that's one of the most memorable things I know about Craig.

But yeah, I really enjoyed, having Craig as an instructor for all my classes.

I do try to encourage them.

I probably am not good enough.

Sometimes I just tell the class, you know, if I haven't said anything bad about it, about you so far, you know, you're doing great.

And and this is your one compliment for the semester.

So you might want to take a note on that and write it thing, you know, so you can look at it when you need to.

I really like it.

He's he's the first teacher I've ever had that really just kind of like, sparked my interest into somethi get into it.

And it's kind of like, I don't know, I couldn't really see myself doing anything else now because I like this so much.

When my students come to me and say, what does it take?

I usually say, you need to love it.

You have to desire becoming good at what's going on.

The people that at Rose state who really succeed are the ones who spend endless hours in the lab rooms, in the control rooms because they have to.

Some people find out they don't want to spend that much time doing it.

Other people just live at the studio.

When I do see talented kids or kids who are willing to work, and some come in either way and some both, and I see them typically go on and do things.

I do warn them that they may have to do more than one thing to make living a comfortable living, but I also tell them if they want to do it enough, that they'll figure out a way to do it.

My approach to how quickly the students pick things up and and my advice to them is to I'm going to set out some things you need to do, and if you do them, I'm going to know how how you're doing as far as learning goes, if you do them on time, you know you're going to have a better chance at a job.

Also.

And I never discourage somebody from doing anything.

It's to me they should do what they want to do.

And and if nothing else, they're going to learn how to maybe make their own songs in their little compact studios and, and get a job as an accountant somewhere and, and make more money than I would ever think about making.

Here we go.

Here's one of my students, Craig Shirk, which we are doing.

He's done some quite a bit of recording, and he's taken most of my classes.

He's an example of someone who lives and breathes it.

I couldn't really imagine going out there to do anything with music without knowing what I've learned from going there, because I don't know, just, I mean, about recording and music in general.

Like he has theory classes and I've learned about music theory, I've learned about music business.

And there's I mean, there's so much stuff that goes on and most people have no clue.

Craig has been out a few times.

This semester, actually, we couldn't find a good time for their band to record at Rose state, so we just made it a recording project to go out to my place and do it.

He didn't get to do the engineering, but he's he's been working on it since.

I haven't touched it since I recorded.

Well, the things that I hope to work on are more and more of my own material.

I mean, the, the, the possibilities are endless about what can be done now, and I just, I, I need to find the time to do it.

So in the summers I teach a little bit less, mainly do internet classes and hopefully get some time to really work on some things.

Well, my biggest satisfaction is continuing to work with those students, whether they're musicians or engineers or film score people or whatever.

But I like seeing them learn, and I like seeing them say, wow, I never knew what that was for.

That's that's what when you hear that, you know, that they've they're they're going to remember that.

So yes, I would say that I do it.

It's in there I, I did it before I knew there was money.