Over the last couple episodes of my column, I have been telling you about the amazing talents of the infamous artist/photographer/musician Doug Miller of Laguna Beach.
We covered his art and photography previously. Today I want to get into his music. The dude is one of those rare people who can make his instrument come alive. And his is one of the hardest of them all, the violin.
I have been letting Doug tell it in his own words through messages we sent back and forth. His start was like many others, but the result was way beyond.
“Lita, my mom’s mom, she got me into the free grade-school program in the fourth grade – had a choice of flute or violin. Those or choir. I could sing, but I didn’t want to be singing, I took the violin,” Doug said. He then got a private teacher in Long Beach who taught violin and accordion. “After a couple years, Lita found Merwyn Tucker advertising to teach private violin lessons – he was a worker at Douglas Aircraft and a member of the Long Beach Symphony.”
He said Tucker had a “slow and very intense technique to get tone and control. I didn’t want to practice, but dad put me in my room for an hour every night. He griped, ‘We’re not wasting that fiddle money’ and I sawed away.”
“I kept tunes in my head – and they stayed there,” Doug continued. “I could memorize a few symphonies and classical pieces even if I couldn’t play them – and show tunes and pop tunes, I don’t remember lyrics, but the melodies stick. Once I have the melody, I can play it – even years later.”
“I got invited to play violin at the Pelican Fish Company around Thanksgiving of 1972 – hitchhiked to Dana Point,” Doug said. “They liked me, and I became the third member of that group – Dave McMahon and Bob Hawkins.”
He said they played at the Pelican for a year and then at the Dana Point Jolly Roger on the harbor for six months and then six more months at The Quiet Woman in Corona del Mar.
“I…
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