Mel McGary

Teacher Pianist Composer

A gifted teacher, pianist, and composer, Mel McGary began his musical journey in Marion, Ohio. He currently teaches private piano lessons in Santa Barbara, where he has lived since the early 1990s.

43302: Can you tell me what you're working on now musically?

MM: It’s usual for me to be working on my latest composition. I give my own compositions priority. I’m working on a tune now simply called “Mom” - I am trying to describe (with sound) her beautiful spirit.

I have a piano studio with a few dozen students so I am always working on music that can motivate them. We play a lot of classics. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin,- you know - the Great Western music composers. In my studio the student will be exposed to all the great jazz composers - Monk, Ellington, Herbie Hancock, Chic Corea, Horace Silver - to name a few.

Beautiful, interesting, innovative, soulful music is liable to come from anywhere on earth, and I hope I get to experience it, too.

Today I am working on an old Willie Phoenix tune called “ Too Much Traffic”. I plan to put it on my next release.

43302: I asked Mel to take a look at 43302 to get an idea of the stories and interviews we do. 

MM: I feel so connected to those stories. They stirred some powerful memories.

I was surprised to learn that world-class musician Gerry Mulligan had ties to Marion. In your article, he talked about an orchestra pit at the Palace Theater. When our band - Little Eric or the Boppers - was playing a Palace gig we decided that I would “emerge” from the orchestra pit during the first song.  I remember vividly being hunched down on that dusty old elevator ready to “levitate" to the stage.

Pictured is the band, Bopper: Jim Cummings, Mel McGary, Greg Glasgow, Willie Creagh (Phoenix), and John Smith. Bopper won the National Battle of the Bands staged in Greenville, North Carolina in August 1973. The band sometimes shared the bill with Willie’s father and Melvin’s father.

Bob Erickson encouraged our band and let me walk in and practice on his piano mostly anytime. What a patient man . . . letting kids make noise. I remember one time spending several hours learning the song "Something" by the Beatles.

Your story on Bobby Floyd made me recall a lot of things. From the ages of 6 to 11, I lived at 707 North State Street in Marion. That’s about 15 yards from the Mayes Temple where Bobby was the organist. I never went to church there, but many many, evenings I would sit outside my house and listen to that booming Hammond. What a treat and an education!

Years later in high school, the music teacher, George Lane, paired Bobby and me in a school concert. That was a lot of fun and very memorable for me.

Willie Phoenix, Bobby Floyd, Bill Sims, and I all lived on State Street. I  always looked up to Bill  . . . an older musician from "the hood". He is the first person I ever saw wearing a pair of sandals. (Laughs)  One day, Bill asked if he could borrow my keyboard for a gig. It made me very happy that he asked me and it made me feel like a fellow musician. Years later,  I happened to catch, by accident, the PBS documentary all about Bill (An American Love Story, featuring Bill and Karen Sims and family.

Mel is on the porch of his aunt and uncle’s house. “My family, my home, my blood is here . . . Screenshots are from the documentary “Mel McGary: Artist in Motion”, produced and directed by Jake Jacobson.

43302: Your cousin, Willie Phoenix, described sitting in his bedroom late at night listening to his father, the Reverend William Creagh, and fellow musicians, including your father, Lee McGary, on harp, play. When did you realize you were going to be a musician? What drew you to the keyboard?

MM: My family moved into a house on Cass Avenue when I was five. That house had a piano. . . and I pounded on it often.

One night the grown-ups were having a party and I watched my uncle and my dad jam on the “blues”. When they left the room, I walked over to the piano and imitated the left-hand pattern that I had just watched “Uncle Buh” ( God bless his soul) play for 2 hours. All the adults came running back into the room and made a big deal out of it. They pronounced me to be a pianist - I liked the attention. My dad was proud of my 8 notes. That finalized the deal!

A little later, the adults let us kids play in the church . . . learning on the job. Dr. Phoenix (my name for Willie) and I would practice. He would play the chords on the guitar and I would match them note-by-note on piano. Wasn’t long before we were trying to make up our own songs.

Playing in the church was some of the best training. At a special time in the service, anyone in the congregation can start singing any song, in any key. The musicians have to find the singer’s key. We played everything by ear like that. Great training in transposing.

43302: What are your memories of your early recording sessions?

MM: “The Eric Album” was our first recording. I must have been all of 13 years old. We recorded up in Fremont, Ohio. I remember staying up all night. Driving back to Marion the next day— we had just recorded all night and I had never stayed out all night before. At that time I wrote or co-wrote some of the songs, and we all sang. That was our first attempt at recording.

Little Eric band members: Willie Creagh (Phoenix) (lead guitar & vocals), Mel McGary (keys & vocals, Jim Cummings (bass), Paul McKinniss (drums - studio), and Bill Belt (drums on tour). Willie wrote the 10 songs on the album. Mel McGary served as a co-writer. The album “Eric” was reissued by Soft Estate Records in 2018. The package included the lyrics to the ten songs, photographs, and liner notes by Willie Phoenix.

Then there’s the “A&M record” that showcased the great talent and songwriting ability of Dr. Phoenix. I am forever grateful for having been a part of that project. We were very “Raw Rockers” from Ohio, Had those “Hollywood types”  resisted the urge to “remake” us in their own image, we probably would have been better off.

Recording at A&M Studios, Los Angeles, California. Left to right: Rob Brumfiel, lead guitar, Greg Glasgow, bass, Jerry Hanahan, drums,  Willie Phoenix, vocals & rhythm guitar, Mel McGary, keyboards

43302: You were quite an athlete. You grew up playing baseball, basketball, and football. As a college freshman, you pitched for the Modesto (CA) team. Willie Phoenix’s dream growing up was to be a baseball pitcher. Did you struggle with the question: Sports vs. Music? Secondly, do you play any sports today? 

MM: Now that seems like a lifetime or two ago.

Baseball and football are the “dreams” of most American boys. I was really interested in sports. I started at quarterback for Harding in my sophomore and junior year. After our band (Bopper) returned from a month-long tour, I asked the coach if I could join the team. Coach told me I had to make a choice - music or football. That was the end of football for me. 

I got a letter from Bo Schembechler, the Michigan football coach, when I was a junior. If only that letter had come from Ohio State. I would probably have gotten a concussion or two but I would’ve been motivated to try. I did not have the discipline nor the attitude to be a pro player. 

On the very first day that I arrived in Modesto to play baseball, I found the music practice rooms. I was learning Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour” and the trombone player in the next room began to jam along with me. Jim Clarke, who became my dear friend, and I had just played music together before we ever met in person. Instant musical soul mates. We listened and played and discussed music for years to come. Jim passed away. What an awesome musician and a great guy. 

I hadn’t completed a year in college before Willie called and asked me to come back to Ohio. He was confident that he would be signed soon.

43302: The next two images are screenshots from the documentary “Mel McGary: Artist in Motion”. Students describe the teacher, Mel McGary.

“Mel’s always been there . . . Only a couple people in my life are that important to me.”

“Mel is more than a piano teacher . . . he’s a second father. Someone who really cares.”

43302: In listening to your students in the documentary, Mel McGary: Artist in Motion, they view you, not only as a wonderful teacher of music but as a mentor in life. In what ways do your students inspire you?

MM: All my students motivate me in one way or another. My student Gil, 96 years "young", inspires me. I see him walk up the hill to come to his lesson. It helps me remember that I have nothing to whine about.

I teach some lessons via Facebook and zoom and a couple of my students are in medical school. They still find time for music. That helps me remember to work hard. Overall, it's good to know that many people are so talented in so many ways and music is important to all of them.

43302: You teach lessons online. How do you adapt "live" face-to-face instruction to teaching piano online?

MM: There is no difference, short of being able to physically shake hands and I tell fewer jokes online. The most important things remain the same. Students must work hard and explore. I need to care about their progress and give them the best musical advice that I can.

43302: What's the best way for those interested in online classes to contact you?

MM: The best way to contact me is to leave a message on my website - MelMcGary.com.