Hi, my name is John Schreiber. I
am 42 and have been playing music for almost 30
years. My interest began when I was 12. My
parents brought a piano into the house, but my
mother noticed me tinkering with it more than the
rest of my family. She started sitting with me
and humming melodies as I picked out the notes.
After a couple of weeks, my parents got me a
private piano instructor. I took two years of
lessons and continued to play through High
School. In my sophomore year I joined the jazz
band and took a year of music theory. I gained a
major interest in teaching when I enrolled in the
keyboard class that the school offered. I was too
advanced for the class so the teacher started
letting me tutor the other students.
At 17, I heard a friend playing the banjo and I
fell in love with the sound. After taking some
lessons at a local music store called The Banjo
Shop, I spent the next three years of my life
studying string instruments and bluegrass music.
I practiced 8 to 10 hours a day and by the time I
was 20 I had become proficient on 5 instruments
including the banjo, mandolin, guitar, bass, and
fiddle; A couple of years after that I joined an
Irish band and started delving into world music.
I have been playing and teaching music for my
full time living ever since.
The instruments I play are: Banjo (5string, and
tenor), Mandolin, Bass, Guitar (in standard, and
the Irish tuning DADGAD), Fiddle, Bodhrán (an
Irish drum), Bouzouki, and Didgeridoo (an
Australian wind instrument).
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See John in 1991
