Coaches & Gurus

WGS: Tell us a little about yourself... How did you get started Songwriting?

DA: When I was 4 or 5 years old, I used to watch Roy Rogers and Dale Evans on TV. They’d sing and play guitar and ride horses, and I decided that was what I wanted to do. And then I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and that really did it. Those performances inspired me to be a songwriter. Also, for my 6th birthday, I saw my first movie, which was “The Sound of Music.”

WGS:  What instrument(s) do you play? What instrument did you learn on?

My Mom taught me a little piano when I was very young, and then she got me a teacher when I was 8. I had 3 piano teachers over the course of my elementary and high school years, and my last teacher in High School was an Eastman graduate who prepared me for my college music auditions. I played percussion and then got recruited to play the oboe in band, and I sang in chorus. We had a great All-State chorus, and one of the highlights of my High School music experience was a singing under Robert De Cormier. In New York State, we had the NYSSMA piano music exams, and I had to play scales and arpeggios and several pieces from memory in front of a judge each spring. The stress I felt from performing in these adjudicated situations and in annual recitals propelled me towards writing my own songs. I figured if no one else had heard them before, and I forgot the words or made mistakes, no one would know! I got my first guitar when I was 14. It was a Norma from a Sears catalogue, and I watched Frederick Noad on Public Television to learn some basics. I taught myself how to play songs on the radio and got really into open tunings from listening to Joni Mitchell and having one of her song folios. I wrote my first song when I was 15.