Beau Mansfield (Piano)

Beau Mansfield has been a keyboardist and composer since before he started to learn to read music, 32 years ago. He was educated at the University of Oklahoma and at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. He is keyboardist/vocalist/co-composer in his fusion/jazz/jam band, Extra Ginger, which can be heard at www.myspace.com/extraginger.

Beau believes that learning to play by ear alone helped tremendously when he started to read music and feels that this is the most important concept to grasp at the initial stages: music happens whether or not it is written down ahead of time. If a student can create sounds that feel "right" to him or her, and can remember where their fingers go to create these sounds, this is more important than whether that student connects the sound to a written image--at least at first.