The teacher files
STORY AND PHOTO BY MATT RO W N IN G
After years of playing, recording and working as a
professional musician, Brian Rose founded the Music
Technology Program at Clackamas Community College.
The Clackamas Print: How long have you been playing
music?
Brian Rose: Since I was four. That’d.be 56 years, cause
1*11 be 60 in January.
TCP: Did you run a couple keyboards on top of each
other then?
Rose: I’d have three or four keyboards going, w ith a
drum machine. Eventually, I bought keyboards that had
sequencers built in. Some guys used computers, you see
Mac Classics out there. That’s how I got my training in
MIDI. I took it a step further and said, “I’m getting pretty
good at th is.” I can actually make commercial music
and sell it to local video producers, music libraries. I
started making music as a writer. I expanded to build a
studio where I can record bands. I did that for 20 years or
so. Then I put together a studio at a private high school
downtown, they asked me to come in and do that. Then
the chair out here saw what I was doing out there, and
he knew me, and he wanted to do that out here.
TCP: Tell us about your playing.
Rose: I started with classical, of course, because I had a
:lassical teacher. I wanted to move on to other styles, jazz,
and after five years of pretty intense classical training, I
wanted to move into Scott Joplin and Ragtime. My teacher
wouldn’t allow it, so I stopped taking lessons. I picked
up the trombone, not because I wanted to play it, but
because the school had run out of alto saxes, which I’d TCP: Was that Dave Mills?
really wanted to play. I picked up the trombone and played Rose: No, Tom Wakeling. The music departm ent was
that through high school and actually got a full ride to failing. He knew we had to go high tech. He brought me
in, and we created the Music Tech departm ent, and it
here (CCC) as a trombone player.
basically bailed out the music departm ent.
That’s why I came out here.
TCP: What was it like playing here as a student?
Rose: I went out here my senior year, and by the end of my
first year, I was already playing gigs. I played trombone
professionally for about 10 years or so, and then realized This interview has been edited for clarity and space.
that the piano players are getting a lot more work than Read more o f this interview at TheClackamasPrint.com
any brass player. I started buying keyboard equipment
and teaching myself what I needed to play.
o
©
PRINT
EDITORIAL
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TCP: Why did a keyboardist need to understand MIDI,
musical instrument digital interface, the protocol for
digital instruments to communicate timing and notes
with each other?
Rpse: The bars were cutting back on the money they’d put
up for bands, for two reasons. One was the drunk driving
law kicked in and so people quit drinking during the week.
The liability insurance triple, as that made the club liable
for someone’s drunken condition. That was another big
expense. People were drinking less, so they’re bringing
in less revenue, and then their insurance went way up
hjgh. They started saying no more 5 or 6 piece bands: 2 or
j piece bands. By the time I got my equipment together
and got my chops together, I had to learn to program
MIDI. I had to replace the bass player and all those layered
keyboard parts you heard in all those 80s tunes, and I had
to program drums.
STAFF WRITERS
Corrections: In the Nov. 18 issue of The Print, a story misstated the hometown of CCC instructor Irma Bjerre. She is from
Bucaramanga, Colombia. Also in the Nov. 18 issue, a story about the Army Strong center quoted Nick Hadley out of context.
Hadley said, “ Not at all” to a question about whether he was bothered by the Veterans Center being closed on Veterans Day.
[¿'is not a building, but is an office. The Army Strong center is not a charity; it is Army-funded earned benefit. Army Service
Component Command is not associated with the center; it falls under the Army Reserve Family Programs.
screened or subject to censorship.
& PHOTOGRAPHERS
Cassidy White
Debbie Fox
Lily Shaver
Merari Calderon Ruiz
Victoria Tinker
PRODUCTION
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Taras Kovch
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melissaj@clackamas.edu
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ON THE COVER: Portland Winterhawks beat the Tri-City Americans on Nov. 20. Photos by Blake Swan. Cover design by Brandon Chorum.