September 6, 2025 • 33 mins
Episode 22 is my very first Interview in a series of upcoming interviews. This one is all about the HARMONIOUS BLACKSMITH himself! Learn his background, how he came to become a professional musician , and ultimately, how he came to become a Music Theory Podcaster.
This entire series of podcast episodes includes :
Music Theory, Gregorian Chant, Western Music, Notes, Pitch, Melody, Harmony, Triads, Chords, Chord Progressions, Scales, Greek Modes, Keys, Key Changes, The Circle of Fifths, Modulation, Bass Lines, 4-Part-Harmony, Voice-Leading, Musical Improvisation, Song-Writing, and much more! Subscribe Today!
#music #podcast #musictheory #musichistory #musictheorypodcast
Linear Music Theory Learning For Everyone!
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Episode Transcript
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UNKNOWN (00:03):
you
SPEAKER_00 (00:46):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to The
Harmonious Blacksmith.
I am your host, Kevin PatrickFleming, and today is really,
really a very, very momentousoccasion.
(01:08):
Today is my very first interviewin a series of interviews.
But I thought I'd start withgiving my listeners really what
I should have given them a longtime ago.
I mean, I'm 22 episodes in.
And you really don't knowanything about who the
blacksmith is.
(01:28):
So today's episode is calledMeet the Blacksmith.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And this is, of course, episodenumber 22 of season number two.
(01:52):
I do appreciate you joining me,y'all.
And I am just too excited not totell you what is coming up on my
podcast very soon.
And that is multiple interviewswith many musicians who are
entrenched in music theory forone reason or another.
(02:15):
So in other words, I'll beinterviewing people locally and
afar.
I will be interviewing amateursand I will also be interviewing
professionals.
What I'm really trying to get atis how does music theory affect
your life?
Why is it useful?
(02:35):
Why should I learn it?
Why should I spend time studyingmusic theory at all when I can
just pick up my instrument andlearn things by ear?
There are a lot of Thank youvery much for checking that out.
(03:11):
And so, without further ado,Adieu.
Interview number one in myseries is with The Harmonious
Blacksmith.
(03:33):
okay so i am going to be theinterviewer as kevin patrick
fleming or kevin or kpf and iwill be interviewing the
harmonious blacksmith who willbe referred to by that name or
by hb let's get started so mrharmonious blacksmith yes
(03:56):
welcome to my podcast thank youand how are we doing today my
friend oh i'm doing great thankyou so so much for having me on
of course kpf i am so excited tobe here my friend thanks for the
interview and i really hope thati can engage your audience with
a lot of great information andcontent today oh that's awesome
(04:17):
we're so glad to have you on theprogram hb thank you look we're
gonna start you off with a feweasy things great general things
and then we'll narrow as we gomore into music theory which as
you know is what my podcast isall about yes sir let's Let's
start with some basics.
Nice.
People out there, they want toknow where you're from and how
(04:42):
you grew up.
Okay.
So however you want to answerthat, however specific and
general, let's start with that.
All right.
As you know, my name is KevinPatrick Fleming.
Welcome.
I was born in Galesburg,Illinois, USA.
Okay.
And on my mother's side, I'mfirst generation...
(05:03):
Born right here in the UnitedStates.
Oh, wow.
My mother was born in Vienna,Austria.
Oh, wow.
And she came over in the mid20th century as an immigrant.
And then fast forward and I wasborn in Illinois in 1977.
Oh, nice.
(05:23):
The year of the original StarWars.
Yeah, that is correct.
Okay.
Yeah.
My mom actually bought me a StarWars 1977 Oh! Nice! Oh yeah,
that's pretty epic, man.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it is cool.
(05:45):
I've always sort of held StarWars pretty personally because
of that.
So to continue, my father wasout of the picture when I was
really, really young.
And that's really all I'm goingto say about that.
But my mother eventually movedto Texas where she got remarried
to my stepfather and And weeventually moved to the East
(06:05):
Coast in places like NorthCarolina and Georgia in the
southeastern United States.
Excellent.
Excellent places to live.
Thank you for that.
Of course.
Now, I'm really interested inwhat the harmonious blacksmith
was doing as a child.
When did you get into music?
How did that happen?
(06:25):
But really on top of that, whatare the other things that you
really grew up enjoying?
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
So I'll go ahead and tell youthis.
Let's start with this.
I started playing music when Iwas about 10 years old.
Okay.
Maybe 11.
It's somewhere in there.
And that's when I got my firstguitar, which was a Harmony
(06:51):
brand electric guitar.
My mom knew that I had this hugedesire to play because I had a
best friend who was takinglessons and playing, and I heard
him play stairway to The GreatStairway to Heaven by Led
(07:25):
Zeppelin or live the musicianlifestyle weren't as into sports
as I was and as I am.
Now, I'm not pigeonholingmusicians here.
Okay.
Keep in mind.
That's all right.
I'm just saying in general,that's the way it is.
(07:46):
True.
But I first learned sports inHouston, Texas, where if you
were a boy and you could put thepads on, you learned how to play
football.
Oh, football.
Yes, that's right.
I was a football player growingup, and I actually played for
seven years.
It was all just as a kid.
(08:33):
Football, you played soccer.
That is a lot of sports forsomebody who ended up doing
mainly music.
That's pretty impressive,actually.
Thank you.
You sound like a prettywell-rounded guy.
I appreciate it.
Excellent.
I love that.
Thank you.
All right, so let's fast forwarda little bit.
Sure.
And let's find out how you, youknow, once you were mesmerized
(08:53):
by Stairway to Heaven, yourfriend played it and you were
mesmerized.
Yes, sir.
And you had to play music.
Let's start from there.
How does that elevate into intogetting more serious about music
and eventually taking it on asyour lifelong love and
profession in adulthood.
(09:33):
Got the guitar.
I eventually wanted to upgradeto an acoustic guitar, and
here's a life lesson that not alot of kids get these days.
Uh-oh.
I know.
I'm going to sound like that oldguy.
Stay off my lawn.
That's what I sound like rightnow.
I get that.
That's funny.
But my parents made me do yardwork every weekend for a month
(09:53):
just to get about a$100 AlvarezRegent acoustic guitar, which
was much, much better than thechintzy little Harmony that I
had.
I got for 30 bucks originally.
Oh, nice.
A working man.
And despite all the stories ofsports, I really was an
introvert.
We moved a lot.
I moved in the middle of myninth grade year in high school.
(10:15):
And if you've never done thatand you have no idea what that's
like, it's really, really hard.
Yeah, that had to be tough.
You end up moving to a schoolwhere people have been growing
up together.
They all know each other.
And you're just this outsiderthat came from somewhere.
So needless to say, it was hardto make friends.
I'd I became very introverted,and guess what?
I used to go home, get off thebus, and I used to go up to my
(10:38):
bedroom and close the door andplay guitar until my mom called
me for dinner.
I did that for many, many, many,many days in high school before
I got a little bit more popularand had some friends and some
hangouts by the time I was ajunior and senior.
But really, my freshman andsophomore year were spent
(10:59):
learning to play the guitar.
Beautiful.
And just to give you an idea ofhow obsessed I was.
I used to play so much that Iwould wear my fingers raw and my
fretting hand and yet I wouldjust put band-aids on them so I
could keep playing.
That's how obsessed I was when Iwas a teenager.
My God, that is a whole otherlevel of obsessed.
(11:21):
I don't know that I know anybodyelse that hurt themselves, put
the band-aids on and then keptgoing and continuing to hurt
themselves simply because theywanted to play so much.
Okay, so now we've got youngKevin Fleming, born in the
United States in Gettysburg,Illinois, in the year of Star
(11:42):
Wars, grew up playing sports,moved around a bit here and
there, but eventually gotobsessed with music.
So I think what the audiencewants to know now is how did
that progress to something moreserious?
And how and when did you decideto go into academia or become a
professional musician?
(12:02):
or how did all that come about?
Ah, okay, I see.
Well, let me start that part ofthe story by telling you a quick
little anecdote.
Ooh, everybody loves stories.
After I had studied music for awhile and my parents knew I was
gonna go into the profession,even though they didn't want me
to for economic reasons, if Iever complained anything
(12:26):
money-wise, my mother used tosay, well, that was the choice
you made.
And my immediate response Whatchoice?
(13:02):
So I just wanted to start withthat so that you know where I'm
coming from.
Yeah.
Let's fast forward a little bit.
(13:26):
That was great.
I had a bass player, and Iplayed guitar.
We were really instrumental inthe beginning, and the very
first epic song we played wascalled Are You Gonna Go My Way
by Lenny Kravitz.
Oh, I remember that one.
(13:46):
Yes, for all you youngsters outthere, you probably don't know
what that is.
Go ahead and cue it up in yourstreaming.
I promise you won't regret it.
It's a really cool track, but Iwill never forget that that was
the first cover I played with myfirst rock band.
Oh, wow, that's great.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing thatanecdote.
My pleasure.
Yeah, that's great.
(14:07):
Everything that led you fromStairway to Heaven by Led
Zeppelin all the way to Are YouGonna Go My Way by Lenny
Kravitz.
But I thought somewhere in therethat you ended up being a
classical guitarist.
This doesn't necessarily soundlike you're ending up in the
classical guitar chair with afootstool on the ground.
(14:29):
How did that happen?
I think the audience wants toknow.
Okay, I'm good with that.
How you arrived as a classicalguitarist.
Okay, actually, my story withthat is not as uncommon as you
might think.
A lot of my classical guitarfriends in music school, as I'm
going to tell you how I gotthere, really did come from a
(14:49):
similar background that I did.
Learning to play electricguitar, getting obsessed with
music, building your chops,playing hard rock and heavy
metal and things like that.
Oh, wow.
And then eventually, a friend ofmine took me to a concert in
downtown Marietta, Georgia,where for the first time I got
(15:10):
to see the great ChristopherParkinney, the prodigal student
of the great Andre Segovia, whois, of course, the father of the
modern classical guitar.
Oh, wow.
So you were introduced toclassical guitar by hearing one
of the greats in modern time,Christopher Parkinney.
(15:32):
Yes.
Like a direct student from thegreat Andre Segovia.
The student.
Who, of course, brought theentire school of guitar over to
the United States.
Yes, he did.
Okay, so now we're getting tothe nitty gritty.
A friend drags you to aChristopher Parkening concert.
You're obviously going to bemoved by it.
(15:53):
Oh, yeah.
And then your trajectory changesat that point.
Correct?
For your life?
Well, not immediately.
But, yeah, ultimately it did.
I think I was considering musicreally not as a profession.
Oh, really?
I should go ahead and tell youthis.
When I was about to startcollege, I actually had a rock
(16:16):
band that was doing quite welland possibly about to go on
tour.
Oh, wow.
That's cool.
But I really wanted to go tocollege, and I knew I was going
to go to college instead ofdrifting off with a rock band.
So I got into Georgia Tech inAtlanta.
Oh, my freshman year was like ano brainer.
(16:36):
You got to go to Georgia Tech.
That's a great school.
That's an incredible school.
So I was a civil engineeringmajor for a year of all things.
Wow.
But I would have never guessedthat was at Georgia Tech.
All I did was spend a lot oftime dreaming about playing
music and guitar.
And I realized that that wouldbecome my life.
Wow.
If I did not make a decision togo back into music after my
(17:01):
freshman year, which is what Idid then I probably would be
sitting in an office staring outa window dreaming of playing
music dreaming of teaching musicand being entrenched in it and
ultimately that's the decision Imake and I never looked back and
I have never ever regretted itso you took the plunge wow so
(17:22):
you were an engineering major ata prestigious school like
Georgia Tech yes sir I mean theThat is huge.
That is such a good school.
And you were able to walk awayfrom that and go to music.
So, all right.
So what's the next chapter thenafter you attended Georgia Tech?
Well, I'm so glad that youasked.
(17:42):
Well, first of all, after bothof my parents almost losing
their minds that I was going toleave a school like Tech to go
to a smaller school and become amusic major of all things was
definitely an event in my life.
I can imagine.
I met some friends, some futurefriends, one of which was my
(18:03):
first teacher of classicalguitar one summer.
And he introduced me to one MaryAckerman, who was really the
classical guitar teacher that Ihad the longest in life.
I studied with her for likealmost five years.
Wow.
Nice.
And thank goodness I did.
She was a fantastic teacher, anincredible player, an amazing
(18:28):
human being.
I will always have love for MaryAckerman and I will always have
humble and gracious thanks foreverything she gave to me.
That's beautiful.
Honestly, once I was under herwing, that was it.
I mean, I knew this is what Iwas going to do.
I knew that classical guitar wasgoing to be the path that I was
going to pursue.
(18:48):
And ultimately I did.
And I earned my bachelor'sdegree in classical guitar
performance at Kennesaw StateUniversity.
Little old Kennesaw.
And I eventually followed thepath of my teacher, Mary A.
Kerbin.
I went on to learn from herformer teacher, the late, great
(19:09):
Bruce Holzman.
Oh, isn't that cool?
Anybody in classical guitarcircles knows that name.
I mean, Bruce Holzman,thankfully, is just a
world-renowned pedagogicalmaster when it comes to guitar.
I mean, just really, really aJedi.
Night, if you will.
(19:30):
It used to blow my mind how muchhe could problem solve in any
situation of any piece, nomatter what.
And once I came out of there,you really feel like you can
play anything after you areunder his tutelage for a while.
And I really felt like that.
And so I earned my master's fromthe Florida State University
(19:54):
under the late, great awesomeall right now we're getting
somewhere so now you have you'reentrenched in academia
definitely you've got abachelor's degree you've got a
master's degree this isobviously going somewhere in
your profession and of course umapropos to this program uh we're
(20:15):
getting to how you became amusic theory uh jedi knight so
to speak i'll go ahead and giveyou that title and um i'll be
interested to know what's Sowhat is the next part of the
story?
Okay, well, I should go aheadand tell you that I was really
intense in classical guitar foran entire decade and really the
(20:38):
rest of my life.
But the reason I mentioned adecade is because I did enter
the competition circuit.
Oh, wow.
And I just didn't want to forgetto mention that I was a part of
that.
I ended up winning a lower levelcollege competition in the state
of Georgia.
Nice.
I also ended up winning a firstprize in a statewide competition
(21:00):
in Mississippi.
Excellent.
And I also ended up winning afourth prize in an international
guitar competition in NorthCarolina.
Wow.
Congratulations.
So I just wanted to mention thatso you know how serious I was
and how entrenched I was inclassical guitar.
That's pretty serious.
But after I got my master's, Iended up at the ripe old age of
(21:25):
20.
I became an assistant professorof guitar at a college in the
middle of Georgia.
And it really was incrediblebecause my second year there at
the ripe old age of 25, ElliotFisk, the great Elliot Fisk,
(21:46):
came and played a concert at myschool and I got to meet him and
talk to him.
It was a real pleasure.
If you don't know who ElliotFisk is, go ahead and check him
out.
He's kind of an old school Oneof those old school original
guitar players.
You know, if we're going withall the Star Wars analogies that
we've been going with.
Why not?
He's kind of an Obi-Wan type,you know?
(22:08):
Nice.
And here we are like 22 minutesinto this interview and I
haven't even talked about musictheory, I realize.
Obviously, a lot of backgroundwas needed to get here.
Of course.
Of course.
The truth is, I eventually endedup as a doctoral assistant, a
graduate Oh, my.
(22:30):
Excellent.
It was really more about just mylevel of curiosity.
(22:55):
about music theory.
And just to circle back and givea little full context, let me
remind you, because of thestigma that comes with classical
musicians, and there is one, andI've experienced it constantly
after becoming a classicalmusician, I always remind people
that I was a self-learnedmusician in my teenage years.
(23:20):
Ah, self-learned.
Yes, I was self-learned as amusician before I ever had a
really good teacher in MaryAckerman.
And I want to remind people ofthat because my beginnings
weren't in that kind of intenseclassical environment.
They were just a kid justmessing around with a guitar.
(23:41):
And because of that, I'm tellingyou that story because once I
started studying music theory incollege, a lot of times when I
was in a class, and by the way,I was like a kid in a candy
store.
I loved it.
I ate it up.
But when I was in class, I had alot of moments where I was being
taught something where lightbulbs went on and I was like, so
(24:03):
that's what you call that?
Oh, I know what that is.
I just didn't know it had a namelike that.
I see.
Things like that happen so much.
And I think that would happenfor a lot of you out there if
you're, you know, not a formallytrained musician.
You don't have to be.
It's not necessary.
That's right.
Like I said, I don't come fromthat originally.
(24:25):
We love to hear that.
So I can tell you, you don'thave to come from that.
But the point is, you'll findout that you actually know a lot
of the concepts already.
You just don't know what we callthem and how we organize them.
He's right.
And then once you give themnames, you learn how to organize
them.
You learn some different anglesabout how to think about music
theory.
(24:45):
It really helps you build yourknowledge for music and how it's
constructed, how to play it andperform it just heightens
everything about music for youit makes it more enjoyable it
makes you understand it and readit more it makes you perform it
(25:06):
better and more confidentlythere's just so many reasons
that music theory is absolutely100% necessary if you're serious
about doing music wow that's anice sales pitch for music
theory in general I just hopethat all of our listeners out
there really made note of yourjourney especially the fact that
(25:29):
you came from humble beginningsand in the beginning you weren't
even You weren't even thinkingabout being a musician
professionally.
That's true.
You were at Georgia Tech.
You were an engineering major.
Your sane, rational mind wasthere.
But really, your deep-seatedpassion took over.
Oh, yes.
And you ended up in music.
And now you're this music theorykind of guru for
SPEAKER_01 (25:52):
people.
SPEAKER_00 (25:53):
And you have a lot of students.
So talk about the rest of yourpath and how you got to where
you are today.
Okay, absolutely.
So I did continue down theacademia I was at this small
school in Georgia.
(26:33):
And I think, I guess I nevertold you what all I do.
So, instrument-wise, I playseveral things.
Not only guitar, but also bassguitar, banjo, mandolin,
ukulele, lap steel, a little bitof pedal steel, a tiny bit of
keyboard, and, of course, awhole lot of music theory.
(26:55):
Wow, that's a lot of stuff.
Just wanted to let everybodyknow that that's what I do.
So, at the university that Iteach at, I am the main folk
music teacher.
teacher I teach lessons on folkmusic instruments and I teach
classes on folk music butexcellent I must be pretty
satisfied obviously being a partof this podcast is a huge part
(27:16):
of my life I make music theorycourses thank you and I do have
many students that just takemusic theory and have for years
for example I have a good friendwho works in Hollywood works on
movie trailers and Wow.
And he was taking music theorylessons from me all the way
(27:37):
across the country.
He was in California and I wasin Georgia.
And we would meet up on Saturdaymornings despite the time
difference.
And we just did music theory forseveral years.
Nice.
And he ended up being able touse that kind of thing for his
Hollywood projects.
There you go.
For his trailers for majormovies.
(27:58):
You affected movies inHollywood.
You affected movies.
It's kind of cool when youaffect people that way.
Yep.
One other.
little braggart you know one ofmy current guitar students all
I'll say is he is a prominentquarterback on a major college
football team and it's funnythat I hear his name called on
national sports radio all thetime and I'm like hey that's my
(28:20):
student they're just talkingabout my student so it's really
connected me a lot to a lot ofreally cool people and how you
get to affect them now I didhave a lengthy conversation And
I didn't talk about that toomuch because really, honestly,
the older I get, the more I lovethe education, the more I love
(28:41):
passing the buck to my studentsand what it does for them.
The idea that you can do so manydifferent things.
Yes.
Because my students have endedup doing all kinds of things
with music theory.
They use it to learn toimprovise at jam sessions.
They use it to learn to composeand write music and make their
(29:03):
songs.
They use it to do transcriptionwork where you're taking a piece
from one medium and transcribingit over to another.
(29:33):
what it is that the harmoniousblacksmith completely gets out
of music theory in his life.
Okay, okay, I got you.
Absolutely.
So look, like I was sayingearlier, as somebody who was a
self-learned musician, somebodywho learned by ear, somebody who
just listened to CDs andcassettes, yes, that dates me.
(29:57):
Oh, yeah.
That's fine.
That's okay.
And rewound them over and overand over again to try to figure
out what that one note was inthat one part you know things
like that I went all the wayfrom that to just using my ear
to connecting what I hadexperienced with my ear to
intellect and that really whatis the heart of music theory the
(30:21):
heart of music theory isconnecting your passion for
music to your ear which is yournumber one asset and ultimately
also to your intellect so thatNice.
(31:03):
Excellent.
(31:32):
I hope you connect everythingand organize it and really
elevate your game to the nextlevel.
But I do want to finish bysaying thanks again for having
me on your first interview onthe Harmonious Blacksmith KPF.
I do appreciate it.
I just want to let you know Ithink you're an extremely
talented guy.
And you know what?
Now that we're in person, Ithink that you're also a really
(31:56):
handsome guy.
You're just really well-rounded.
Thank you.
And I just want to thank youagain for the interview.
It was really wonderful.
Wow.
Well, look, man, it was so goodfor you to come on.
I really, really do appreciateit.
And you know what?
You're a really handsome guy,too.
Oh, that's so nice of you.
I mean, I can't believe howwell-rounded and talented and
smart and funny and justhandsome you are.
(32:20):
Thanks, man.
You are a really good guy.
Look, this has been great.
I couldn't have asked for abetter first interview in my
series of interviews coming up.
So thank you, ladies andgentlemen.
Let's give it up for theHarmonious Blacksmith.
(32:41):
Oh, thank you so much.
Thank you, everybody, forlistening out there.
We love you.
We appreciate you.
Thank you so much, everybody.
All right.
Thanks again to the harmoniousblacksmith for the interview.
Thanks again for all mylisteners out there.
I appreciate you tuning in andsupporting me.
We will get back to it next weekand I will be looking forward to
(33:09):
continuing this music theoryexploration with all of you.
Have a beautiful music filledweek everybody We love you and
we can't wait to spend some timeagain with you in the future.
Take care, everybody.
you
SPEAKER_00 (00:46):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to The
Harmonious Blacksmith.
I am your host, Kevin PatrickFleming, and today is really,
really a very, very momentousoccasion.
(01:08):
Today is my very first interviewin a series of interviews.
But I thought I'd start withgiving my listeners really what
I should have given them a longtime ago.
I mean, I'm 22 episodes in.
And you really don't knowanything about who the
blacksmith is.
(01:28):
So today's episode is calledMeet the Blacksmith.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And this is, of course, episodenumber 22 of season number two.
(01:52):
I do appreciate you joining me,y'all.
And I am just too excited not totell you what is coming up on my
podcast very soon.
And that is multiple interviewswith many musicians who are
entrenched in music theory forone reason or another.
(02:15):
So in other words, I'll beinterviewing people locally and
afar.
I will be interviewing amateursand I will also be interviewing
professionals.
What I'm really trying to get atis how does music theory affect
your life?
Why is it useful?
(02:35):
Why should I learn it?
Why should I spend time studyingmusic theory at all when I can
just pick up my instrument andlearn things by ear?
There are a lot of Thank youvery much for checking that out.
(03:11):
And so, without further ado,Adieu.
Interview number one in myseries is with The Harmonious
Blacksmith.
(03:33):
okay so i am going to be theinterviewer as kevin patrick
fleming or kevin or kpf and iwill be interviewing the
harmonious blacksmith who willbe referred to by that name or
by hb let's get started so mrharmonious blacksmith yes
(03:56):
welcome to my podcast thank youand how are we doing today my
friend oh i'm doing great thankyou so so much for having me on
of course kpf i am so excited tobe here my friend thanks for the
interview and i really hope thati can engage your audience with
a lot of great information andcontent today oh that's awesome
(04:17):
we're so glad to have you on theprogram hb thank you look we're
gonna start you off with a feweasy things great general things
and then we'll narrow as we gomore into music theory which as
you know is what my podcast isall about yes sir let's Let's
start with some basics.
Nice.
People out there, they want toknow where you're from and how
(04:42):
you grew up.
Okay.
So however you want to answerthat, however specific and
general, let's start with that.
All right.
As you know, my name is KevinPatrick Fleming.
Welcome.
I was born in Galesburg,Illinois, USA.
Okay.
And on my mother's side, I'mfirst generation...
(05:03):
Born right here in the UnitedStates.
Oh, wow.
My mother was born in Vienna,Austria.
Oh, wow.
And she came over in the mid20th century as an immigrant.
And then fast forward and I wasborn in Illinois in 1977.
Oh, nice.
(05:23):
The year of the original StarWars.
Yeah, that is correct.
Okay.
Yeah.
My mom actually bought me a StarWars 1977 Oh! Nice! Oh yeah,
that's pretty epic, man.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it is cool.
(05:45):
I've always sort of held StarWars pretty personally because
of that.
So to continue, my father wasout of the picture when I was
really, really young.
And that's really all I'm goingto say about that.
But my mother eventually movedto Texas where she got remarried
to my stepfather and And weeventually moved to the East
(06:05):
Coast in places like NorthCarolina and Georgia in the
southeastern United States.
Excellent.
Excellent places to live.
Thank you for that.
Of course.
Now, I'm really interested inwhat the harmonious blacksmith
was doing as a child.
When did you get into music?
How did that happen?
(06:25):
But really on top of that, whatare the other things that you
really grew up enjoying?
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
So I'll go ahead and tell youthis.
Let's start with this.
I started playing music when Iwas about 10 years old.
Okay.
Maybe 11.
It's somewhere in there.
And that's when I got my firstguitar, which was a Harmony
(06:51):
brand electric guitar.
My mom knew that I had this hugedesire to play because I had a
best friend who was takinglessons and playing, and I heard
him play stairway to The GreatStairway to Heaven by Led
(07:25):
Zeppelin or live the musicianlifestyle weren't as into sports
as I was and as I am.
Now, I'm not pigeonholingmusicians here.
Okay.
Keep in mind.
That's all right.
I'm just saying in general,that's the way it is.
(07:46):
True.
But I first learned sports inHouston, Texas, where if you
were a boy and you could put thepads on, you learned how to play
football.
Oh, football.
Yes, that's right.
I was a football player growingup, and I actually played for
seven years.
It was all just as a kid.
(08:33):
Football, you played soccer.
That is a lot of sports forsomebody who ended up doing
mainly music.
That's pretty impressive,actually.
Thank you.
You sound like a prettywell-rounded guy.
I appreciate it.
Excellent.
I love that.
Thank you.
All right, so let's fast forwarda little bit.
Sure.
And let's find out how you, youknow, once you were mesmerized
(08:53):
by Stairway to Heaven, yourfriend played it and you were
mesmerized.
Yes, sir.
And you had to play music.
Let's start from there.
How does that elevate into intogetting more serious about music
and eventually taking it on asyour lifelong love and
profession in adulthood.
(09:33):
Got the guitar.
I eventually wanted to upgradeto an acoustic guitar, and
here's a life lesson that not alot of kids get these days.
Uh-oh.
I know.
I'm going to sound like that oldguy.
Stay off my lawn.
That's what I sound like rightnow.
I get that.
That's funny.
But my parents made me do yardwork every weekend for a month
(09:53):
just to get about a$100 AlvarezRegent acoustic guitar, which
was much, much better than thechintzy little Harmony that I
had.
I got for 30 bucks originally.
Oh, nice.
A working man.
And despite all the stories ofsports, I really was an
introvert.
We moved a lot.
I moved in the middle of myninth grade year in high school.
(10:15):
And if you've never done thatand you have no idea what that's
like, it's really, really hard.
Yeah, that had to be tough.
You end up moving to a schoolwhere people have been growing
up together.
They all know each other.
And you're just this outsiderthat came from somewhere.
So needless to say, it was hardto make friends.
I'd I became very introverted,and guess what?
I used to go home, get off thebus, and I used to go up to my
(10:38):
bedroom and close the door andplay guitar until my mom called
me for dinner.
I did that for many, many, many,many days in high school before
I got a little bit more popularand had some friends and some
hangouts by the time I was ajunior and senior.
But really, my freshman andsophomore year were spent
(10:59):
learning to play the guitar.
Beautiful.
And just to give you an idea ofhow obsessed I was.
I used to play so much that Iwould wear my fingers raw and my
fretting hand and yet I wouldjust put band-aids on them so I
could keep playing.
That's how obsessed I was when Iwas a teenager.
My God, that is a whole otherlevel of obsessed.
(11:21):
I don't know that I know anybodyelse that hurt themselves, put
the band-aids on and then keptgoing and continuing to hurt
themselves simply because theywanted to play so much.
Okay, so now we've got youngKevin Fleming, born in the
United States in Gettysburg,Illinois, in the year of Star
(11:42):
Wars, grew up playing sports,moved around a bit here and
there, but eventually gotobsessed with music.
So I think what the audiencewants to know now is how did
that progress to something moreserious?
And how and when did you decideto go into academia or become a
professional musician?
(12:02):
or how did all that come about?
Ah, okay, I see.
Well, let me start that part ofthe story by telling you a quick
little anecdote.
Ooh, everybody loves stories.
After I had studied music for awhile and my parents knew I was
gonna go into the profession,even though they didn't want me
to for economic reasons, if Iever complained anything
(12:26):
money-wise, my mother used tosay, well, that was the choice
you made.
And my immediate response Whatchoice?
(13:02):
So I just wanted to start withthat so that you know where I'm
coming from.
Yeah.
Let's fast forward a little bit.
(13:26):
That was great.
I had a bass player, and Iplayed guitar.
We were really instrumental inthe beginning, and the very
first epic song we played wascalled Are You Gonna Go My Way
by Lenny Kravitz.
Oh, I remember that one.
(13:46):
Yes, for all you youngsters outthere, you probably don't know
what that is.
Go ahead and cue it up in yourstreaming.
I promise you won't regret it.
It's a really cool track, but Iwill never forget that that was
the first cover I played with myfirst rock band.
Oh, wow, that's great.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing thatanecdote.
My pleasure.
Yeah, that's great.
(14:07):
Everything that led you fromStairway to Heaven by Led
Zeppelin all the way to Are YouGonna Go My Way by Lenny
Kravitz.
But I thought somewhere in therethat you ended up being a
classical guitarist.
This doesn't necessarily soundlike you're ending up in the
classical guitar chair with afootstool on the ground.
(14:29):
How did that happen?
I think the audience wants toknow.
Okay, I'm good with that.
How you arrived as a classicalguitarist.
Okay, actually, my story withthat is not as uncommon as you
might think.
A lot of my classical guitarfriends in music school, as I'm
going to tell you how I gotthere, really did come from a
(14:49):
similar background that I did.
Learning to play electricguitar, getting obsessed with
music, building your chops,playing hard rock and heavy
metal and things like that.
Oh, wow.
And then eventually, a friend ofmine took me to a concert in
downtown Marietta, Georgia,where for the first time I got
(15:10):
to see the great ChristopherParkinney, the prodigal student
of the great Andre Segovia, whois, of course, the father of the
modern classical guitar.
Oh, wow.
So you were introduced toclassical guitar by hearing one
of the greats in modern time,Christopher Parkinney.
(15:32):
Yes.
Like a direct student from thegreat Andre Segovia.
The student.
Who, of course, brought theentire school of guitar over to
the United States.
Yes, he did.
Okay, so now we're getting tothe nitty gritty.
A friend drags you to aChristopher Parkening concert.
You're obviously going to bemoved by it.
(15:53):
Oh, yeah.
And then your trajectory changesat that point.
Correct?
For your life?
Well, not immediately.
But, yeah, ultimately it did.
I think I was considering musicreally not as a profession.
Oh, really?
I should go ahead and tell youthis.
When I was about to startcollege, I actually had a rock
(16:16):
band that was doing quite welland possibly about to go on
tour.
Oh, wow.
That's cool.
But I really wanted to go tocollege, and I knew I was going
to go to college instead ofdrifting off with a rock band.
So I got into Georgia Tech inAtlanta.
Oh, my freshman year was like ano brainer.
(16:36):
You got to go to Georgia Tech.
That's a great school.
That's an incredible school.
So I was a civil engineeringmajor for a year of all things.
Wow.
But I would have never guessedthat was at Georgia Tech.
All I did was spend a lot oftime dreaming about playing
music and guitar.
And I realized that that wouldbecome my life.
Wow.
If I did not make a decision togo back into music after my
(17:01):
freshman year, which is what Idid then I probably would be
sitting in an office staring outa window dreaming of playing
music dreaming of teaching musicand being entrenched in it and
ultimately that's the decision Imake and I never looked back and
I have never ever regretted itso you took the plunge wow so
(17:22):
you were an engineering major ata prestigious school like
Georgia Tech yes sir I mean theThat is huge.
That is such a good school.
And you were able to walk awayfrom that and go to music.
So, all right.
So what's the next chapter thenafter you attended Georgia Tech?
Well, I'm so glad that youasked.
(17:42):
Well, first of all, after bothof my parents almost losing
their minds that I was going toleave a school like Tech to go
to a smaller school and become amusic major of all things was
definitely an event in my life.
I can imagine.
I met some friends, some futurefriends, one of which was my
(18:03):
first teacher of classicalguitar one summer.
And he introduced me to one MaryAckerman, who was really the
classical guitar teacher that Ihad the longest in life.
I studied with her for likealmost five years.
Wow.
Nice.
And thank goodness I did.
She was a fantastic teacher, anincredible player, an amazing
(18:28):
human being.
I will always have love for MaryAckerman and I will always have
humble and gracious thanks foreverything she gave to me.
That's beautiful.
Honestly, once I was under herwing, that was it.
I mean, I knew this is what Iwas going to do.
I knew that classical guitar wasgoing to be the path that I was
going to pursue.
(18:48):
And ultimately I did.
And I earned my bachelor'sdegree in classical guitar
performance at Kennesaw StateUniversity.
Little old Kennesaw.
And I eventually followed thepath of my teacher, Mary A.
Kerbin.
I went on to learn from herformer teacher, the late, great
(19:09):
Bruce Holzman.
Oh, isn't that cool?
Anybody in classical guitarcircles knows that name.
I mean, Bruce Holzman,thankfully, is just a
world-renowned pedagogicalmaster when it comes to guitar.
I mean, just really, really aJedi.
Night, if you will.
(19:30):
It used to blow my mind how muchhe could problem solve in any
situation of any piece, nomatter what.
And once I came out of there,you really feel like you can
play anything after you areunder his tutelage for a while.
And I really felt like that.
And so I earned my master's fromthe Florida State University
(19:54):
under the late, great awesomeall right now we're getting
somewhere so now you have you'reentrenched in academia
definitely you've got abachelor's degree you've got a
master's degree this isobviously going somewhere in
your profession and of course umapropos to this program uh we're
(20:15):
getting to how you became amusic theory uh jedi knight so
to speak i'll go ahead and giveyou that title and um i'll be
interested to know what's Sowhat is the next part of the
story?
Okay, well, I should go aheadand tell you that I was really
intense in classical guitar foran entire decade and really the
(20:38):
rest of my life.
But the reason I mentioned adecade is because I did enter
the competition circuit.
Oh, wow.
And I just didn't want to forgetto mention that I was a part of
that.
I ended up winning a lower levelcollege competition in the state
of Georgia.
Nice.
I also ended up winning a firstprize in a statewide competition
(21:00):
in Mississippi.
Excellent.
And I also ended up winning afourth prize in an international
guitar competition in NorthCarolina.
Wow.
Congratulations.
So I just wanted to mention thatso you know how serious I was
and how entrenched I was inclassical guitar.
That's pretty serious.
But after I got my master's, Iended up at the ripe old age of
(21:25):
20.
I became an assistant professorof guitar at a college in the
middle of Georgia.
And it really was incrediblebecause my second year there at
the ripe old age of 25, ElliotFisk, the great Elliot Fisk,
(21:46):
came and played a concert at myschool and I got to meet him and
talk to him.
It was a real pleasure.
If you don't know who ElliotFisk is, go ahead and check him
out.
He's kind of an old school Oneof those old school original
guitar players.
You know, if we're going withall the Star Wars analogies that
we've been going with.
Why not?
He's kind of an Obi-Wan type,you know?
(22:08):
Nice.
And here we are like 22 minutesinto this interview and I
haven't even talked about musictheory, I realize.
Obviously, a lot of backgroundwas needed to get here.
Of course.
Of course.
The truth is, I eventually endedup as a doctoral assistant, a
graduate Oh, my.
(22:30):
Excellent.
It was really more about just mylevel of curiosity.
(22:55):
about music theory.
And just to circle back and givea little full context, let me
remind you, because of thestigma that comes with classical
musicians, and there is one, andI've experienced it constantly
after becoming a classicalmusician, I always remind people
that I was a self-learnedmusician in my teenage years.
(23:20):
Ah, self-learned.
Yes, I was self-learned as amusician before I ever had a
really good teacher in MaryAckerman.
And I want to remind people ofthat because my beginnings
weren't in that kind of intenseclassical environment.
They were just a kid justmessing around with a guitar.
(23:41):
And because of that, I'm tellingyou that story because once I
started studying music theory incollege, a lot of times when I
was in a class, and by the way,I was like a kid in a candy
store.
I loved it.
I ate it up.
But when I was in class, I had alot of moments where I was being
taught something where lightbulbs went on and I was like, so
(24:03):
that's what you call that?
Oh, I know what that is.
I just didn't know it had a namelike that.
I see.
Things like that happen so much.
And I think that would happenfor a lot of you out there if
you're, you know, not a formallytrained musician.
You don't have to be.
It's not necessary.
That's right.
Like I said, I don't come fromthat originally.
(24:25):
We love to hear that.
So I can tell you, you don'thave to come from that.
But the point is, you'll findout that you actually know a lot
of the concepts already.
You just don't know what we callthem and how we organize them.
He's right.
And then once you give themnames, you learn how to organize
them.
You learn some different anglesabout how to think about music
theory.
(24:45):
It really helps you build yourknowledge for music and how it's
constructed, how to play it andperform it just heightens
everything about music for youit makes it more enjoyable it
makes you understand it and readit more it makes you perform it
(25:06):
better and more confidentlythere's just so many reasons
that music theory is absolutely100% necessary if you're serious
about doing music wow that's anice sales pitch for music
theory in general I just hopethat all of our listeners out
there really made note of yourjourney especially the fact that
(25:29):
you came from humble beginningsand in the beginning you weren't
even You weren't even thinkingabout being a musician
professionally.
That's true.
You were at Georgia Tech.
You were an engineering major.
Your sane, rational mind wasthere.
But really, your deep-seatedpassion took over.
Oh, yes.
And you ended up in music.
And now you're this music theorykind of guru for
SPEAKER_01 (25:52):
people.
SPEAKER_00 (25:53):
And you have a lot of students.
So talk about the rest of yourpath and how you got to where
you are today.
Okay, absolutely.
So I did continue down theacademia I was at this small
school in Georgia.
(26:33):
And I think, I guess I nevertold you what all I do.
So, instrument-wise, I playseveral things.
Not only guitar, but also bassguitar, banjo, mandolin,
ukulele, lap steel, a little bitof pedal steel, a tiny bit of
keyboard, and, of course, awhole lot of music theory.
(26:55):
Wow, that's a lot of stuff.
Just wanted to let everybodyknow that that's what I do.
So, at the university that Iteach at, I am the main folk
music teacher.
teacher I teach lessons on folkmusic instruments and I teach
classes on folk music butexcellent I must be pretty
satisfied obviously being a partof this podcast is a huge part
(27:16):
of my life I make music theorycourses thank you and I do have
many students that just takemusic theory and have for years
for example I have a good friendwho works in Hollywood works on
movie trailers and Wow.
And he was taking music theorylessons from me all the way
(27:37):
across the country.
He was in California and I wasin Georgia.
And we would meet up on Saturdaymornings despite the time
difference.
And we just did music theory forseveral years.
Nice.
And he ended up being able touse that kind of thing for his
Hollywood projects.
There you go.
For his trailers for majormovies.
(27:58):
You affected movies inHollywood.
You affected movies.
It's kind of cool when youaffect people that way.
Yep.
One other.
little braggart you know one ofmy current guitar students all
I'll say is he is a prominentquarterback on a major college
football team and it's funnythat I hear his name called on
national sports radio all thetime and I'm like hey that's my
(28:20):
student they're just talkingabout my student so it's really
connected me a lot to a lot ofreally cool people and how you
get to affect them now I didhave a lengthy conversation And
I didn't talk about that toomuch because really, honestly,
the older I get, the more I lovethe education, the more I love
(28:41):
passing the buck to my studentsand what it does for them.
The idea that you can do so manydifferent things.
Yes.
Because my students have endedup doing all kinds of things
with music theory.
They use it to learn toimprovise at jam sessions.
They use it to learn to composeand write music and make their
(29:03):
songs.
They use it to do transcriptionwork where you're taking a piece
from one medium and transcribingit over to another.
(29:33):
what it is that the harmoniousblacksmith completely gets out
of music theory in his life.
Okay, okay, I got you.
Absolutely.
So look, like I was sayingearlier, as somebody who was a
self-learned musician, somebodywho learned by ear, somebody who
just listened to CDs andcassettes, yes, that dates me.
(29:57):
Oh, yeah.
That's fine.
That's okay.
And rewound them over and overand over again to try to figure
out what that one note was inthat one part you know things
like that I went all the wayfrom that to just using my ear
to connecting what I hadexperienced with my ear to
intellect and that really whatis the heart of music theory the
(30:21):
heart of music theory isconnecting your passion for
music to your ear which is yournumber one asset and ultimately
also to your intellect so thatNice.
(31:03):
Excellent.
(31:32):
I hope you connect everythingand organize it and really
elevate your game to the nextlevel.
But I do want to finish bysaying thanks again for having
me on your first interview onthe Harmonious Blacksmith KPF.
I do appreciate it.
I just want to let you know Ithink you're an extremely
talented guy.
And you know what?
Now that we're in person, Ithink that you're also a really
(31:56):
handsome guy.
You're just really well-rounded.
Thank you.
And I just want to thank youagain for the interview.
It was really wonderful.
Wow.
Well, look, man, it was so goodfor you to come on.
I really, really do appreciateit.
And you know what?
You're a really handsome guy,too.
Oh, that's so nice of you.
I mean, I can't believe howwell-rounded and talented and
smart and funny and justhandsome you are.
(32:20):
Thanks, man.
You are a really good guy.
Look, this has been great.
I couldn't have asked for abetter first interview in my
series of interviews coming up.
So thank you, ladies andgentlemen.
Let's give it up for theHarmonious Blacksmith.
(32:41):
Oh, thank you so much.
Thank you, everybody, forlistening out there.
We love you.
We appreciate you.
Thank you so much, everybody.
All right.
Thanks again to the harmoniousblacksmith for the interview.
Thanks again for all mylisteners out there.
I appreciate you tuning in andsupporting me.
We will get back to it next weekand I will be looking forward to
(33:09):
continuing this music theoryexploration with all of you.
Have a beautiful music filledweek everybody We love you and
we can't wait to spend some timeagain with you in the future.
Take care, everybody.
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