Wayne always loved music. As he grew, he enjoyed examining his mother's clarinet, his brother's trombone, his sister's flute, and another brother's trumpet. During his favorite pre-school class his teachers opened a piano and showed how the piano worked.
As a child, Wayne often crept into the living room to watch the blind piano technician tune his family's piano. He watched for hours, trying to make no sound. The tuner either heard him or sensed his presence, because after some time, the tuner always began to talk with Wayne.
When Wayne turned eight, curiosity and love of music prohibited him from returning to his cub scouts den. During his first den meeting, his Den Mother showed the cubs her family's antique violin. She left the room to answer a phone call and told the boys not to touch the violin. While the violin was unharmed, let's just say that Wayne was grateful for another good Den Mother who allowed him to participate in her Cub Scout Den.
At age 9, Wayne participated in a musical production. His "father" in the play was a master of wood work. Wayne's mother arranged for the "father" to became Wayne's 4H instructor for woodworking and wood carving.
In 1988 Wayne began working with a state-renowned piano technician in Idaho. He loved the experience of having a blind piano technician "show" him so many things he'd never before seen. This gave Wayne the ability to tune and repair pianos.
Two decades later Wayne began to link his woodworking and musical loves together. A local luthier invited him to learn the art of making string instruments. The first violin Wayne made was a pocket fiddle. Wayne now loves to use his artistic, technical, and musical skills to build and repair a variety of string instruments.
