Music re-entered Tyler ’ s life through a fortuitous series of coincidences and one special person … “ My dad was an associate pastor at our church ( which was one of the largest in the Houston area ). Our family was part of the church ’ s home school co-op which made use of church members who were at the top of their fields and were willing to volunteer to teach certain skills . Each ‘ semester ’ included three elective classes you could take part in … things like chemistry , cooking , foreign languages , sports ... even origami ! However , the only musical option at the time was the recorder ( and that just wasn ' t going to work for me !) As I had maxed my sports credits over the years , I now had to take a music class . Dad had heard about a newly hired pastor who could play all kinds of stringed instruments and talked him into doing a ukulele class for the coop . That is how , at the age of 11 , I met Buddy Griffin .
I took eight weeks of ukulele lessons with Buddy and I loved it ! Unlike my piano experience , that was the first time I realized you could play music with chords and not have to worry about learning all the theory . After the ukulele class was over , Buddy told me I had real talent and asked me if I wanted to learn to play another instrument . I had heard him play a banjo at a Christmas banquet and it really blew me away . Although I had know idea there were different kinds of banjos , because Buddy was playing a tenor banjo , that ' s what I told him I wanted to learn .
Buddy then offered me a deal : He would give me banjo lessons for free if I would play gigs with him . I thought he was crazy because it seemed like he was going to get the raw end of the deal ! The other part of his offer was that I couldn ' t have the next lesson until I had mastered what he had taught me on the previous lesson ( I think he was hoping he wouldn ' t have to see me for a few weeks at a time !) But I fooled him and I made sure that I mastered everything as quickly as possible … we ended up having two or three lessons each week for almost two years .
During this time I also joined the Jubilee Banjo Band ( which was also led by Buddy Griffin ). The joke was that they let me join because I brought the average age down to 40 ! Kidding aside , I learned a lot from that experience … how to be part of a band , how to read music , how to play different parts in an ensemble , and even how to act ! As his ukulele classes resulted in a lot of potential banjo players , Buddy decided it would be a good idea to start a youth banjo band . We started out with six people who met at our church and , although I was only part of it for a little over a year , in that short time the program really took off , ultimately becoming the ALL STARS group .
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