John Cannaday

John Cannaday, a resident of Indianapolis, Indiana, began his musical career at the age of four when his parents bought him his first toy piano. He owes much of his ability to an unfortunate mishap with his first full-sized piano, when during second grade, the key for Middle C broke -- a catastrophe of untold proportions for a beginning piano student!

Fortunately, at that time, his mind was still quick and relatively uncluttered, so he was able to conceive of an on-the-spot solution: he simply worked around the broken piano key by transposing the music on his sheets to other keys, and in so doing, taught himself how to transpose music on sight. The thought eventually dawned on him that printed music could be read as a mere suggestion of what notes to play, and from that point on, he paid as much attention (and sometimes more!) to the notes he heard in his head than to the notes he saw on the page -- a habit that he continues even today.

Sometime between middle- and old-age, John discovered that advances in music technology finally afforded him the opportunity to play the notes that he heard in his head and record them simultaneously in the piano itself. New technology also gave John the chance to try his luck composing with the other instruments he thought he heard in his head, all while playing the piano. All these developments came through the magic of a few generations of Yamaha Clavinova pianos, instruments to which John is now fervently loyal.

John takes requests, on occasion, especially from his mother. Feel free to leave suggestions here at this web site; one of your requests may just end up on his next album!