We recently connected with John Vernon Peterson and have shared our conversation below.
John Vernon, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
My retirement job of music (both teaching and playing), has enabled me to earn a full-time living from my creative work. However, it took me about 38 years to get there! Although I graduated with a music and a psychology degree in undergraduate college (Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa – Bachelor of Arts Cum Laude); I graduated in 1982 at the height of a recession. Luckily I had been working two jobs: one as a temporary employee at upstart Midway Airlines, the first carrier of the deregulation era (1979-1991), and my summer job as a camp counselor for Camp Gray, operaterd by the Archdiocese of Madison, Wisconsin. At that time music teachers, including my own brother, Dr Hal Peterson, who had a doctorate in Music Theory and Composition from Stanford University, were out of work, and turning into full time playing or changing career fields. I worked for Midway Airlines for 10 years, being promoted to the Director level (19 cities, 19 city managers, 38 supervisors, 169 passenger service agents, and an administrative assistant. At the same time I had joined the Illinois Air National Guard, first with a pilot training slot (which I redieved a medical disqualification for depth perception), and then later became a personnel officer (mostly part time) except for the Academy of Military Science (officer training), Personnel Officer Training, and two years of active military duty after 9/11/2001 (one year at the Directorate of Personnel, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, and the following year at the Joint Warfighting Center, Joint Forces Command, Suffolk, Virginia. After Midway Airlines ceased operations I was recruited and hired by Evergreen International Airlines located in McMinnville, Oregon. As a result I moved from Chicago to McMinnville, Oregon in 1992. Although I love Oregon, Evergreen did not last, and in two years I was once again out of work. This time I was recruited and hired by CDI / Hewlett Packard for my technical writing skills. While working at both Midway and Evergreen I worked a wide variety of areas, including the writing and editing of the Airport Services Manual, working and training personnel in commisary, gates, inflight, ramp and ticket counter. Among the more interesting facts of my airline work is that I trained flight attendants at both airlines I worked for.. After a decade at Hewlett Packard, my entire department including the boss were let go due to corporate downsizing. Since I now had an MBA (which Air Force Officers need a master’s degree in order to make field grade officer (0-4 and higher), I next decided to become an independent busincess consultant. This led to some great contracts paying up to $60 per hour, but contracts were only as good as their duration. I worked contracts at McMinnville Water and Light, Iberdrola Renewables, the State of Oregon Personnel Employee Retirement System, Oregon Department of Administrative Services, Applied Physics Technologies, and even some wineries. In 2019, my friend George Humlie and his wife Anita invited me to apply at the Humlie School of Music, as their three children had signed a recording contract after being successful on the show America’s Got Talent. This was in November, and I worked at the Humlie School of Music for the next eight months, until ten of the teachers formed a co-op Mac Music Academy (inclufding George Humlie’s sister and his daughter in law. At the same time I began playing in a number of different musical groups, so I was finally using my music major full time as both a teacher and player playing gigs. Today I have 33 studnets for private music lessons and play in nine different groups.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Many people ask me about how I came about teaching the musical instruments I do. I teach the entire rhythm section, which consists of piano, guitar, bass, drums, percussion, mallet percussion (bells, chimes, marimba, vibraphone, xylophone). In college while at Loras, it was the belief of my musical advisor, Dr. Joe Colaluca, that I should have a well rounded experience in the Stage or Jazz Band. So, my freshman year he had me play congas. Sophomore year I played the Fender Rhodes electric piano, Junior year I played the electric guitar. Senior year I played the vibraphone (my favorfite instrument to both play and teach). Band wise I always get a kick out of people asking what instrument I play, as it really does depend on the group. At my church, Stjamesmac.com, St. James Catholic Church, I play bass, but had played an acoustic 12 string guitar previiously for the last 32 years. Our bass player quit and moved out of town, so seeing as we had four other guitarists, I decided it was time for me to play the bass. The same person was also our bassist in the Christmas cantatachoir.org ( a group which plays around ten cantatas each year in the month of December to promote a goodwill offering to help the Yamhill County ‘Acion Partnership to feed the local hungry and homeless. I had previousl;y played electric guitar in this group since 2009, but started playing bass for them this year. Three of the next bands: 99 West Jazz Band, the Little Big Band, and Freddy and the Stumpjumpers Dixieland Band; I had also played electric guitar previously, and this year I began playing bass in these groups as our bassist for the past ten years left the bands. In our community band, secondwinds.org I have played mallet keyboard instruments for the past ten years. In additiont, I play in a group called The Twisted Knickers Revue, that plays every Wednesday night at the Pinot Vista Wine Tasting Room. We have had this gig for the past three years: the longest running regular gig any of our members have experienced. We even have our own wine label, a creative partnership of the Pinot Vista wine tasting room and our band. In this band I have always played keyboards since I started with them. Also, I play in George Humlie’s band Second Time Refined. I started off playing keyboards for the first two years, but now play rhthym guitar. I also do some solo work at various rest homes and assisted living centers.: I have played piano, guitar, and mallet instruments for these gigs. At the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA.org) annual fly-in at Osh Kosh, Wisconsin, I have also played timpani and mallet percussion. The largest gig I ever played was backing up the Apollo 13 Astronauts, to which there was a crowd of over 6,000 people.Of an interesting note, is my analogy of teaching music / while comparing the use of the “hood” in pilot training. The hood only allows the pilot to see the controls in the cockpit – there is no access to view the sky and the position of the airplane. The purpose is to instill confidence in the pilots’instruments. The use in music is to motivate the student to view only the music, and not their hands and / or their position with regard to their instrument. It has certainly become an innovative way to teach my music students.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I think that any musician and / or music teacher wants to leave a legacy. For me it is two fold: I want to leave a teaching legacy, and I want to leave a recorded music legacy. As far as teaching goes, I use an analogy that I have never heard of anyone else using, That is the analogy of an instrument training hood used in a musical setting by blocking out everything else in view except for the music. Just like the instrument hood ensures that aviation student pilots rely on their cockpit guages, in the music studio it blocks all else except the sheet music on the stand. When I explain this analogy to the students, they grasp what I am trying to teach quickly. For the musician in me -I want to make and share a legacy that is recorded and available for both viewing and listening. One of the bands I play with already has its own wine label.Another is recorded at each and every concert. For example, in this year’s Veterans Concert put on by secondwinds.org; I will be the featured soloist on the vibraphone, playing an arrangement of Classical Gas by Mason Williams, with the backing of the entire secondwinds.org community band of McMinnville, Oregon -60 piece wind ensemble.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Oddly enough my favorite instrument to both play and teach is the vibraphone, but I did not own my own vibraphone until about a year ago (age 62). I did have a four octave marimba from high school on. They are pricy, but I certainly could have bought one earlier than I did. Another interesting coincidence is that the vibraphone I purchased was made the same year I was born – 1960. I guess this illustrates the fact that it is never to late to pursue your dreams, buy a musical instrument, cointinue playing and teaching with it. That is the reason our community band is called “secondwinds.org”. The founder of the band noticed parents of current band students saying “I played in grade school, or junior high, or high school, or college, or the military and now want to play again. They may have had obstacles such as marriage, work, travel, family, health or a combination of these issues and other; however, now they can find 90 minutes once per week to play and rehearse.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://johnvernonpeterson.com
- Instagram: [email protected]
- Facebook: Joihn Vernon Peterson
- Linkedin: John Vernon Peterson, MBA
- Twitter: john_v_peterson
- Youtube: [email protected]
- Yelp: [email protected]
- Soundcloud: [email protected]
Image Credits
All photographs used are the property of John Vernon Peterson Music LLC