If you’ve read my story about being born severely bowlegged with little chance of walking properly, then perhaps you’ll understand why mom and grandma kept me away from sports.

(To be honest, I think my grandma would’ve kept me from sports regardless. She had some very unfortunate lethal tragedies with BOTH of her sons, my would-be uncles, at very young ages so I can understand her fear of “EVERYTHING.”)

But somehow, pop warner football slipped through the cracks and I found myself playing tackle football for the first time in my life. I was 12 and boy was I thrilled!

Prior to that, the closest I ever got to football was stuffing my pants with socks and towels like they were real pads… all while putting on a bicycle helmet. I’d go “heads up” against my sofa like it was William “The Refrigerator” Perry.

While I was banned from ever thinking about playing football (or any other sport) for years, the ironic part was that my family, especially grandma, LOVED football. After all, her daughter’s boyfriend was Gary Jeter from the former Anaheim Rams, among other NFL teams.

So now I was the real deal. I had real pads. A real helmet. A real uniform. No more prancing around in home-made articles.

Instead of going “heads up” against my sofa, I went heads up against my teammates… and ultimately against my opponents, come game day. (Oh yeah, “heads up” just means lining up in the classic football stance and ramming into another person, or in my case, object!)

But apparently, I didn’t understand you weren’t supposed to solicit your classmates and go “heads up” in the back of your 7th grade English class while the teacher wasn’t looking (Yes, I was quite a character… more on my class-clownishness in another post).

There we were. My already 6 foot friend, Travis and I going heads up in the back of the class.

“Down.”
“Set.”
“Hut.”

I ram forward as hard as I can and he unexpectedly goes really low. Really low.

What happened next changed my life.

I literally flew over his back into the corner of the wall… face first, splitting my upper lip into two.

All I could feel was numbness. Blood poured out of my lip. I vividly remember my shirt soaked in blood.

I don’t even think the teacher fully discovered how I busted my lip. Everyone was sworn to secrecy. In fact, I don’t think I ever told my mom the whole truth. She knows I ran into a wall… just not how!

(Incidentally, she reads this blog so I guess I’m busted now. Sorry mom!)

That whole ordeal ended in several stitches, a week out of school, 3 missing football games, and a permanent scar above my upper lip that will forever remind me of my audaciousness.

I bet you’re wondering how I’ll tie this to music?

(Gosh, why do I always have to tie my stories to music anyway? Can’t I just tell a story to tell it!?!)

Haha, I’m joking. I don’t mind because there *IS* a message here.

The message is there’s always a time and place for everything.

Yes, I was excited to finally be playing real tackle football. To the next kid who had been playing since 7, it was perhaps just another year of ball. For me, it was something I wanted to do for years!

Going “heads up” isn’t a bad thing… WHEN ON THE FIELD, UNDER SUPERVISION!

Going heads up without the proper equipment and in the wrong setting is BAD. It wasn’t the time nor place to be engaging in such a thing, and unfortunately I paid the price. Everyday, I see the manifestation of “bad time and place” on my lip (although, now disguised a little bit by my mustache.)

Undoubtedly, as you excel in your music and learn new chords, voicings, patterns, and ideas, excitement is going to overwhelm you.

You’re going to want to play everything you know in the first 20 seconds of your performance. You may even have the urge to be super busy sneaking in a “lick” or “run” after every other chord.

This is no different than my desire to go “heads up” all the time, whether against inanimate objects like sofas or in the back of classrooms. Rather than saving and harnessing that energy for the RIGHT TIME, I was like a 2-year old at Chuck E. Cheeses.

There is a time and place for everything.

Veteran musicians know when someone is new and inexperienced because the new guy will “pull out all the stops” right from the beginning. They’ll start the song with the same intensity and dynamics they should instead end with. They’ll be “flipping” and reharmonizing melodies from the first chord! (Don’t get me wrong, “flipping songs” and making things your own is the name of the game but you gradually build up to that.)

The experienced one, on the other hand, will approach their performance thoughtfully and strategically, “keeping their powder dry” until the right time. They may start the song very basic. The next time around, they may add a little something more. And as the song progresses, they’ll include more and more of them at the right time.

They understand the importance of “time” and “place.”

So the next time you feel tempted to act this way, remember my lip.

You’ll have plenty of time to go “heads up,” don’t worry.

Silence is more musical than any song.
Christina Rossetti

And that goes for anything in life!

Balance, my friend, is the key word.

If you’ve been reading my newsletter, you know we’re going to be on the next season of “House Hunters,” a show that has been running on HGTV for over a decade.

The show is detailing our transition from a smaller home into one that will hold our rapidly growing family — wife, 2 daughters, 1 son, myself… and maybe even another future son, if things work out as planned! :-).

So needless to say, having more space in the next home is a pretty big deal and on top of the list.

Believe it or not, it takes 5 full days (9am to 5:30pm) to create an episode. I thought doing our hearandplay all-day video shoots was strenuous… but reality tv is no joke!

The crew is awesome and have given me a lot of tips and pointers for my own projects. In fact, one of the cameramen let me hold his $65,000 camera! I was like, “Are you sure you want to trust me with that!”

Because of the questions they asked, I think this show will reveal a lot about our journey… not only as high school sweethearts, but where we started and how far we’ve been blessed to come. I can’t wait to give you a definite “Air” date! (Update: The show will air on HGTV Monday, October 24, 2011 @ 10pm e/p. Check your local listings).

If you watch the show and are familiar, please tune in! If you don’t, check it out anyway. It’s a really neat show, following couples that are looking for that next home. And this season, I’m told they are switching things up a bit so I can’t wait to see what they come up with. Must be at least 15 hours of footage to scavenge through… ya’ll know I talk a lot!

Update:
Show debuts: Monday, October 24, 2011 @ 10pm e/p (check your local listings for details)

Take care,
JG

As many of you know, we’re moving into our next home. With 3 kids now, we’ve outgrown our current place.

So with that comes packing and reorganizing stuff. And since my wife has adopted this “decluttering” philosophy, it means methodically going through EVERYTHING to see what deserves to be kept, donating and trashing everything else… not just throwing stuff in boxes and figuring it out later (as I probably would have done).

In all that, I came across my old high school yearbook. I flipped to this one page and there I was, “Mr. Jackrabbit!”

You see, I went to one of the most famous high schools in the country — Long Beach Poly (a.k.a. – The “Jackrabbits”).

Not only have we sent the most athletes to the NFL but we’re a California distinguished school. If you’re from around Long Beach, you know there’s two types of people: Those that went to Poly and those that wish they had!!!

At any rate, my mind started going back to that pageant and how I was literally one of the skinniest ones in the competition.

Among us were popular athletes, jocks, popular dancers, etc.

Now, don’t get me wrong… I was ASB President but you don’t get many brownie points for that.

We competed in three rounds: Formal, Swimsuit, and Talent.

Luckily talent was double-weighted (which means whatever you score in talent is doubled compared to the other two categories).

My plan was to knock them out on the piano playing a medley of songs. I tied together 5 songs. I had a little bit of everything in there. The crowd went crazy every time I changed songs. My good friend, Cleveland, accompanied me on the drums. Even though these were basic songs with nothing extremely fancy going on, we were a huge hit!

So they announce the winners.

Formal. Not top 3.
Swimsuit. Not top 3 (and later I found out I was second to last).
Talent. First place.

“Announcing Top 3 Finalists…”

“Jermaine Griggs.”

So now I’m in the finals and we gotta answer a random question.

My question was: “If you were stranded on a deserted island, what would you bring.”

I answered: “I’d bring my bible, which represents my relationship with God, my creator.”

The crowd goes crazy! “Preacher boy!!!”

“Secondly, I’d bring photos and awards to remind me of loved ones and achievements.”

Another clap from the crowd.

“And lastly, I’d bring a laptop computer with internet access because you can still run a business, even if you’re stranded on a deserted island!”

The audience cracks up.

If you know my story, you know I started Hearandplay.com not too long before this. I was going into my senior year of high school (August 2000 to be exact)… about 6 months prior to the competition and I made sure to mention the website in my introduction.

They announce the winners.

For the girls, it was NaOnka Mixon who some of you may know from the last season of the hit show, “Survivor!” (Nicaragua)

And for the boys, yours truly!

Great times… great memories!

I learned many things from that.

First, I didn’t come with an intricate “classical” piece. These were 5 pop songs chosen from various niches. They were played exactly as I had played them in the past… no special additions. I just played! And the audience loved it!

Would seasoned musicians have been impressed? I don’t know. They certainly would have enjoyed it though.

But truth be told. I was just playing the songs. And if you know anything about popular songs, they use regular chords and the same recycled patterns over and over. Your audience doesn’t know that though.

Javad Day, from our Musician Breakthrough collection, talks about the frustration of not being able to “stretch out” when he’s on tour with Chaka Khan. He says one time all the musicians got a chance to “solo.” When they get to him, he starts doing all these jazz runs and fancy scales and licks. The audience is barely paying attention.

The next show, he decides to switch things up and incorporate the simple “Mario Brothers” theme (you know the one from Mario Brothers 1 on the classic Nintendo). The audience goes ballistic!

So as you study hard and stress yourself out about “this” versus “that,” always remember your audience. Sure, if you’re trying to impress other musicians, learn the big, phat chords and unorthodox placements. But to most non-musicians, playing a beautiful song exactly the way it was composed makes you a superstar. And if you add in learning it by ear (without sheet music), you’re a sheer genius to them.

Maybe you thought you were good because people said you were good over the years. But then you started hanging out here or around other advanced musicians that have made you doubt yourself (because they are EXTREMELY good). Don’t get me wrong… there’s a saying that goes “You are the average of the 5 people you hang around most” and it certainly applies to music. But as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

So if people say you are good, you ARE good. The “majority” is your audience. Don’t let advanced musicians intimidate you. Sure, they are REALLY great and they have excelled to the highest levels but always remember who your audience is. And if and when you get to their expert level, you’ll find yourself having to “dumb” things down to be appreciated so enjoy these times now!

Your audience is people who simply love music. They don’t know if you’re playing a fancy thirteenth chord or a regular triad. If it comes out the way they like, they will applaud and praise you.

Don’t let this perspective stop you from learning though. My goal is to encourage you to PLAY NOW! Go gig NOW! Go put what you do know to work NOW! Go play at a senior center NOW! Go volunteer to play music for your kid’s class NOW! Don’t wait! Exercise your gift NOW!

So keep up the great work with your practicing and find opportunities to play. Don’t wait til you arrive. No one ever “arrives.” Find an audience that appreciates what you do know and go for it! And depending on the event, you just may walk away with the prize! :-)

All the best,
JG

I jumped in.

Ferociously paddling my arms and legs like I had observed the other children doing, I tried to get back above water but nothing happened. I just sank deeper and deeper.

As I looked up, all I could see was dozens of legs kicking… and… blue water.

Water gushed through my nose and mouth; my ears now flooded. I paddled incessantly for dear life. Surely someone could see me.

10 seconds passed… 20 seconds… 30 seconds… 40 seconds… a minute.

I was only 7 years old – but a mature one – and I knew what came next. I thought this was the end of my short little life.

I started thinking about my mom, sister, grandma… my friends. I’d never see any of them again. Then I started blaming myself for following the other kids into the pool, knowing I had never swam a day in my life — outside of a blow-up pool — prior to this.

And then it happened.

I felt this body grab ahold of me, lifting me up to the top. This older girl had spotted me making motions in the deep water longer than expected and came to my rescue. She saved my life.

After that, I just remember choking and gasping for air and a bunch of staff from the summer camp circling me.

Apparently, no one had explained to me there was a very shallow 3 ft end and a very deep 12ft end. And having never really been to a huge public swimming pool like this, I honestly had no idea how it worked. All I saw was kids having fun and everybody moving freely so I went along.

To what detail they explained the event to my mother, I don’t recall, but I do remember waking up in her arms that night.

I would sleep walk a lot and usually act out anything that was bothering me. I could never hold a secret because it would come out sooner or later, unbeknownst to me, in my sleep. That particular night, my mom says I was swimming up the wall. I was literally acting like I was drowning and making arm motions against the wall beside my bed.

Indeed a scary moment earlier on in my life but it taught me a few things.

Til’ this day, I ask a lot of questions… especially when I’m new to something. I even ask a million questions while watching movies and my wife hates it. She’s learned to simply ignore me during movies but it doesn’t stop me from asking repeatedly.

I’ve learned to never “jump” into situations without being prepared. Whether it’s on the keyboard or in the boardroom, all the same.

In anything I do, I seek the right instruction and advice before doing it. For example, I’ve been learning golf for the last 6 months and the first thing I did was seek the professional lessons of a PGA instructor who teaches the REAL stuff I need to know. I didn’t want to just jump into the situation blindly just because I could.

I am very cautious of following the “crowd.” In fact, I believe any “crowd” is usually wrong. Do the opposite of what most people do and you’ll probably be right.

That’s why you may sense a contrarian edge to a lot of my teachings. I don’t care how they teach it in the big-whig conservatories… I’m going to teach you the most practical way to understand it, even if I’ve got to come up with silly memory aids and mnemonics like “Why Won’t He Wear White When Hot” to help you remember the “whole step / half step” formula for major scales! That’s how I roll!

And it’s been that way for the longest. While other 12 year olds were playing their Gameboys, I was out selling stationery and Avon products (yup, Avon products!). In college, I was writing a 300pg workbook and recording dvds while others in my suite were partying with their respective fraternities every week.

At a young age, I married and got a head start on raising a happy family… most of my high school and college buddies are still doing the “young” thing. I don’t know if following the kids into the deep end that one dreaded summer day prompted all this but there’s no question this is the way I am.

On another note, do you take time to learn from your experiences? The good, bad, and ugly? Do you look for the lessons in your shortcomings? Teaching moments? The messages in your defeats? How and why you are the way you are?

Well, that’s all I have for you today.

Until next time.

If you’ve been with me long enough, you’ve seen me grow from a skinny, goofy teenager (when I first started this site at 17) to a muscular, handsome heartthrob. (Ok, the “muscular” and “heartthrob” part are a little far-fetched but at least give me the “handsome!”)

More importantly, from a dependent kid without a responsibility in the world to a married man and father of 3.

So in this post, I thought I’d take a break from music and share some family pics. They are long overdue.

Brendan, our latest addition - born Dec 7, 2010

Mommy, daddy, and Layla... our youngest daughter

Jadyn (our oldest, 4) and Layla (1) playing

Another pic of Brendan

Jadyn and Layla posing

Brendan

My favorite throwback - Mommy, daddy, and Jadyn (oldest). She's no baby anymore!

And the day that started it all... April 2, 2005

Or maybe this started it all? High school, 1999

Unfortunately, we haven’t taken an “official” family pic since the one with Jadyn so we’ll be doing that very soon with the entire QUINTET! I’ll post that one as soon as I get it.

Take care,
JG

It’s been a while since I’ve posted updated photos of Jadyn.

Update: This post is old. Jadyn is now older.

So here’s some photos from my flickr account.

These aren’t in any particular rank. They are typed as soon as they pop up in my mind.

Let’s see…

1) smart
2) driven
3) godly
4) entertaining
5) funny
6) engaging
7) loving
8) understanding
9) wise
10) stubborn
11) passionate
12) energetic
13) outgoing
14) curious
15) genuine
16) gentle
17) peaceful
18) caring
19) persistent
20) strategic
21) ethical
22) blessed
23) serious
24) stimulating
25) thoughtful
26) social
27) hilarious
28) geeky
29) techy
30) spiritual
31) charismatic
32) dynamic
33) educated
34) exploring
35) enthused
36) generous
37) happy
38) strong
39) inspiring
40) striving
41) musical
42) creative
43) soulful
44) proper
45) self-conscious
46) gullible
47) consistent
48) busy
49) forgiving
50) miracle

50 words wasn’t easy. What are 10 words that describe you?

I grew up relatively poor (I use that word carefully because there were many people worse-off than us). I didn’t quite live in a war zone — but we certainly weren’t blessed with nicely-manicured, green grass and automatic turning signals at each crosswalk either.

So somewhere right in the lower-middle I guess you can say.

Basically, I grew up in the hood. The more universally-accepted word for it is the “inner city.” In many interviews, I’m known as the inner city kid who did this ___ and did that ____.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with the hood. I know many successful people that refuse to leave the hood, despite their abilities to buy million dollar houses in the hills.

But having lived in situations where on the way home in the car with my mom and sister (usually after dark), the only thought in my head would be how fast we have to walk to get from the carport to our front door — well, that can make a kid dream of life on the other side of the tracks.

Other kids couldn’t wait to get home to play Nintendo and here I was — the man of the house at a whopping 10 years old. Perhaps, I wouldn’t have been so worried if gangs of 30 or more weren’t meeting at every corner of our housing complex. This was the “LBC” (Long Beach City) you hear about in Snoop Dogg songs. Heck, it wouldn’t be uncommon to see Snoop himself hangin’ out.

Where were cops in our area? We had some guys that walked around as security but they might as well have been a part of the gangs. Things got better over time, though.

Anyway… so having come from there, I’ve always had this huge drive to be successful. Some would have called me precocious. I was always a dreamer.

I remember joining this national organization called the “Olympia Sales Club” when I was 9. (I recently googled them and it appears they are no longer with us). Back then, I’d sell stuff out of a catalog and make $2 per item. So if I got an adult to buy 3 items, I’d make $6 bucks.

It wasn’t long before I had family and friends buying from me. And then, having absolutely no knowledge of network marketing, I had started something strikingly similar without even knowing it…

I had kids selling outta these catalogs (I’d make black and white copies of the original catalog for $.02 cents/page) and I would give them $.50 cents to $1 per sale. In my mind, if I made $2 an item and I gave away $.50 cents – $1 to my “reps,” then I could make money without working. And if I chose to work, I’d get the whole $2.

Needless to say, I was in business! All in all, I probably made just shy of $200 bucks with that venture. I would start it up every summer for the next two years, in fact.

When that got old, I recruited my next door neighbor to start a business with me. We would connect our bikes to one wagon, which was borrowed from the other neighbor on the left side (leverage — other people’s stuff). We’d connect both of our bikes to one wagon using jump ropes.

Since our complex was pretty big (like it’s own little community) with over 200 apartments, there were bench stops all throughout it. Probably around 8 or so.

We’d get kids to pay us a quarter for a ride from one stop to the next. If they paid a dollar, they’d get a round trip. We made some good money in this biz and then spent all the money buying pogs.

I got a little mature and wanted to start something that I could make more than $75 bucks with. I was around 12 when I started flipping through penny saver booklets. I mean, every Wednesday when they were delivered, I got a kick outta looking at the business opportunity ads in the back.

“Make $12,000 in 3 weeks” Call 555-555-5555.

“No experience. No requirements. Make $50 an hour” Call 555-555-5555.

“Stop working. Live Your Dreams” Call 555-555-5555.
These ads made me feel good. I really enjoyed reading them (…call me weird, I don’t care). In fact, when we’d go to office supply stores, I would love to run back to the office furniture department and visualize how my office would look when I become a big businessman. I loved the classic oak look of the desks and bookshelfs. Oddly enough, today, I have the same kind of office I once dreamed of.

One day, I said to myself, “I’m tired of reading these ads… I’m gonna call one.” The recruiters on the other end were so surprised a 12 year-old was interested and invited my mom and I to a meeting. It turned out to be Avon.

My mom signed above the dotted line for me. I was the rep, but she was responsible since I wasn’t 18 yet.

I actually did quite well with Avon. I started building my downline (that means getting people signed up as Avon reps under me so that I can get commissions when they make sales). My grandma signed up under me. Then my mom signed up as her own rep under my grandma.

I was headed towards President’s Club!

This got old, especially in high school. It’s hard to explain to my guy friends that I sell cosmetics and perfumes (even though their mom’s started being really good customers before I lost interest). Plus, I was growing up. I honestly didn’t know what leverage was back then but something in my mind told me that I could do better with less work involved.

Now there’s nothing wrong with door-to-door sales. In fact, it taught me how to be a powerful salesman today! That and speaking in front of church congregations at a young age (I’ll save this for another post).

I was also a childhood musician. Yup yup, I had been playing piano since the age of 7… all by ear. No sheet music. Never had a teacher. I was able to hear a song and could pick it out in about 20 minutes. Then as I got better and better, I’d be able to play a new song in 10 minutes — then 5 minutes. Nowadays, when I hear a song, it’s not uncommon for me to play it for someone right on the spot.

So of course, being invited to play at churches caused me to gain some local visibility in the church as the “young musician who can play anything.” Parents started asking me to teach their kids. I had about 10 students at one point.

Again, having not read many business books, I didn’t know what leverage was but I had this natural inclination to do something once that could be used over and over.

So I basically started making these little workbooks that taught them the same chords and scales I had learned on my own. I researched “technical” ways to explain what I had knew and played naturally. By that time, I was on AOL 2.0 crawling on a 28k modem. Eventually, I had created 5 workbooks.

Now I could make them pay for a book and teach them out of it. This way was much better than going off the top of my head or just teaching them songs and skipping all the basics.

Then a crazy idea came to me. What if I can write my books so that people could learn on their own? Then they wouldn’t even need ME. I could go play pop warner football or something. And I did.

(Don’t get it twisted. People tend to question young business kids. They think we didn’t have a childhood. It’s the opposite. We don’t live and breath our businesses — cough cough, ok we probably do — but in my situation, I was also in student government, band, gospel choir, and youth groups. Instead of wasting time watching a lot of tv, I devoted it to researching and writing workbooks).

I started putting fliers in grocery stores and laundromats. The phone never rang.

I even tried an ad in the same penny saver that got me interested in Avon back in the day. The phone never rang.

So those piano workbooks just sat around while I focused on other things like a new shopping site called Shop2x.com. That didn’t last too long but I’m still grateful for my first $800 check, which came from sales of products I had recommended through my site. Shop2x wasn’t my passion though.

I had something going with those piano lessons I had abandoned for a good year — so I was led to focus back on that. That’s when I started HearandPlay.com in August of 2000. I was 17-years old.

What would happen over the span of 2 years would begin to change my life forever. Then what happened the next 3 years beat that! Every year continues to beat my previous year.

You’ll just have to watch out for future posts to see how Hearandplay.com evolved. :)

What is your passion? Are you living it? Have you tried other things that could pay off financially but just didn’t interest you? What have you dreamed of?

See ya next time!