Original Compositions Edly's Music Theory for Practical People Edly Paints the Ivories Blue Buy Now! Visiting Composer Piano Basics Ask Edly Who the heck is Edly? Recommended Listening & Links Contact Want to be notified of new releases? Sign up for the Musical EdVentures mailing list.

Who the heck is Edly? Hi. Edly here. Here's a bit about me. I'm a multi-instrumentalist (clarinet, sax, guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo, piano, bones, recorder, electric bass, and assorted other things), composer, performer, and teacher. I listen to, love, and play, many types of music. Most recently I taught piano, theory, and musicianship at Bennington Vermont's "Sonatas," a piano camp for adults of all levels. Before that, I wrote music articles for the Maine Times for a while, and my article "Teach Your Children Well" was published in the January 1993 issue of Keyboard Magazine as the guest editorial "Blood on the Battlefield of Music Education." Check it out! But let me back up.   I have a B.A. with Honors in music from Wesleyan University. I also attended the Berklee College of Music and the University of Michigan at Interlochen. After college, I played here and there and tried to glean meaning from trying to market noncommercial music to commercial markets until I had an epiphany, and began teaching. Things blossomed from there, until I was teaching quite a lot. During that time, I began typing and printing on my computer stuff that I'd been writing out by hand for students for years: triads. This eventually became Edly's Music Theory for Practical People written over the course of four years. Encouraged by the success of the theory book, I decided to write more books: (see Edly Paints the Ivories Blue). I was a featured author on CNN On-line's weekly chat in 1998 and am a past member of the Casco Bay Tummlers Klezmer band. I also performed solo for many years. I've played in orchestras, rock and folk bands, string quartets, various commercial bands, informal jazz and ethnic groups of various persuasions, and sung in choirs. I've written music in a bunch of different styles, both commercially and noncommercially, for many ensembles, including orchestra, chamber, and synthesized. I've lived in the Boston and San Francisco Bay areas. In San Francisco I repaired furniture for a while 'til I joined a folk show-band for just under a year, entertained at retirement homes and convalescent hospitals (great times!), and then moved to Maine. I moved to the Amherst five college area while the millenium was still relatively new. I now live in a geodesic dome with my wonderful wife and best friend Heather, and my main man and son Bowen. I haven't made any pottery or origami in years. Nor have I brewed beer. But happily, I do juggle, and can also be found playing in my kayak in the local rivers whenever possible. Want to know more about the history of my books? Click here to read Kevin Crossett's March, 2000 interview with me. Kevin is the owner of Play It Again Sam, a fine music store in Montpelier Vermont. My friend Lawwy says it's a very fun interview. And Lawwy knows fun when he sees it.