John Allensworth

Hello fellow music lovers. My name is John K. Allensworth. Music has soothed, calmed, inspired and changed my attitude and my feelings for the better for all of my 74 years!

As the first born child I had the closest awareness of my parent’s early musical preferences. My dad and mom adored swing music with the Glenn Miller Orchestra as the most notable choice. They had a monaural record player and they played Glenn Gray Orchestra, Charlie Barnet, Harry James, Tex Beneke, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and so many others. The years before the mid 60’s we had a floor model RCA multi-band radio, but no television, so music was king and queen. The record was the only way to hear artists remotely.

In the late 60’s new cars got 8 track players and then cassette players and cassette recorders dominated the music playing scene nationally. The sound quality of the good cassette players was excellent with Dolby Noise reduction. Some of the music I listened to as a teenager included The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, The Turtles, Dusty Springfield, The Association and many others. Radio stations had disc jockeys who announced the artist and the song coming up on their shows.

I played clarinet for a few years in junior high and high school but I didn’t practice much. I learned the rudiments of music with a year of piano with a dear teacher, Mrs. Euvagh Wenzel, who showed patience and insight to keep me practicing a bit.

In college, I bought an acoustic guitar and learned several pop songs using chording and strumming.

The increasing availability of digital recording has been a godsend for anyone who wants to hear themselves or their friends play music. I have been recording tunes for about ten years. Jeff Anvinson assists me by transcribing my tunes into musical notation on Finale. His encouragement has enabled me to feel free to record melodies and other music. Thank you Jeff!