About: F. Scott Moyer [Musician/Music Director/Educator/Producer/Composer] Cell: 805-529-2348
THE BEGINNINGS: By the age of 8 years old living in Wilmington Delaware, F. Scott Moyer was fully smitten by music. Rock and Roll was born and was taking hold on the world…especially his. He acquired his brother’s brown and purple maple Ludwig snare drum and began taking formal rudimental lessons a few years later after moving to Ridgewood, New Jersey. From there, his family was transferred to the Far East and, by the time he was 15 in the summer of 1963, he was playing in a Beatle band and sharing the stage with legendary jazz pianist and composer, Thelonious Monk, who was performing with his band, The Beachcombers, for a local music benefit concert at Hong Kong’s Hilton Hotel.
Scott’s band, The Beachcombers, were the first ever Beatles cover-band in Hong Kong and in all of Asia because they were the only ones who had the 1st Beatle Album from England. They had a large and dedicated fan base which grew whenever they played at schools, private parties, yacht clubs, Friday and Saturday night “packed” church dances, benefits or talent contests. Numerous newspaper entertainment articles were written about their local successes, their growing popularity and their increasing skills playing and performing music. They would captivate an audience with their live performances, strong lead vocals, harmonies and their very select repertoire of American and British pop/rock songs. During his time in Hong Kong, Scott also played tennis, soccer, cricket, track and field (high jump) and became Hong Kong’s water skiing champion in slalom and tricks at age 15.
In 1964, Scott bought an acoustic guitar while traveling in Barcelona, Spain and began learning every song and chord he could while continuing to study with local music teachers.
HIGH SCHOOL & COLLEGE YEARS: Upon moving back to the United States in 1965, he continued to study and play in bands (The Things That Go Bump In the Night) throughout his final High School years at Penncrest High School just outside of Philadelphia, Pa and over the four years he attended The University of North Carolina where he graduated with a BA and played Varsity Soccer for 3 years. In his two years at Penncfrest High School, Scott became MVP and All-Delaware-County in Soccer and played #1 in Tennis while also being chosen as Captain of the Tennis team. He continued to study drums and guitar throughout his high school years..
During college at UNC, he chose music studies in music history, music theory, guitar, drums, piano and bass as well as composition, arranging and harmony. There, he also began recording music composed by other artists (producer/composer/engineer Michael Barbiero /Tesla) and working with bassist/producer/composer, Don Dixon (REM /Smithereens) on local gigs and in the recording studio.One of the highlights during this time was a gig as the back up band for Chuck Berry in concert which featured Scott on drums and two other members of his Allman Brothers style cover band a week prior to graduation before a crowd of 10,000. On the same bill that day were the bands: Spirit, J.Geils Band, and The Allman Brothers Band as well as Kate Taylor (Jame’s sister). The event was a year-end concert celebration at Carolina called Jubilee weekend.
This was at the height of the Classic Rock era where, every weekend, Scott was playing the music of Hendrix, The Beatles, The Kinks, the Stones, British and American Blues music, Spirit, R & B, Soul, Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, The Rascals, Credence Clearwater, Deep Purple, Santana, Cream, Sly, The Allman Brothers, Paul Butterfield, and so many more at neighboring Colleges, Universities, Rock clubs, special events and fraternities. Booked by the Ted Hall and Hit Attractions agency, his bands toured all over the South during his four years at UNC.
Scott spent the summers of
1969 and 1970 playing music with several bands
(BABE) in Washington, DC as well as becoming the
Music Director at age 21 of the play,
“Dionysus Wants You.” All the music was written by
Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert (Country Roads, Afternoon Delight etc.) and presented at
The Folger Shakespearean Library/Theater to sell out audiences.
BOSTON & WASHINGTON DC: After College in
1971, he moved briefly to Boston and hooked up with the prolific and dynamic, singer-songwriter/guitar/artist,
Jon Butcher (eventually Jon Butcher and Axis) doing live concerts , clubs, recording and colleges. Not loving the chill of Boston winters, he re-settled in Washington DC in
1972 where he was hired to compose & produce original music for radio and TV commercials and work full-time as a studio drummer at Sounds Reasonable Studios. While there, he wrote, produced and played on numerous commercials including such nationally known brand names as
National Bank, Kawasaki Motor Bikes, Kay Jewelers and others using artists,
Emmy Lou Harris and Margot Chapman (
The Starland Vocal Band) on vocals as well as many stellar local session players like
Danny Gatton and
The Seldom Scene. Backing many local artists on drums in the studios, his reputation as a solid session drummer got him gigs recording with world class bassists,
Dave Holland and
Ron Carter protege & Bassist,
David Williams, on R&B musical projects that hit the local DC airwaves.
In 1974, Scott began teaching music to augment his income and soon was asked to participate in a special government program sponsored by The Department of the Interior. He taught guitar, bass and drums to troubled teenagers in a rock-band format doing classic rock and pop material. The program was a complete success and laid the early foundations for his own Creative Arts Music Project. Music dramatically changed every life of those troubled teens he taught for the better. Eventually, Scott was teaching guitar, bass, drums, piano and music theory 6 days a week to a wide range of music students.
LOS ANGELES 1976 to PRESENT: In 1976, he moved to Los Angeles with best friend and sound engineer, Peter T Lewis. Peter engineered, co-produced and recorded Scott’s first four original songs as well as over 40 minutes of music on the soundtrack of the surf movie “Fantasea” which Scott produced, wrote, sang and recorded drums and guitar. Most of the complex tracks were recorded and co-produced at the Record Plant. The Fantasea film project added to another film called “A Great Ride” where Scott was featured as songwriter (on 3 original compositions), lead singer, drums, percussion and guitars. In 1978 and ’79, he began a long and productive tenure at several music teaching studios, Amazing Music and Blue Lady’s World, doing private lessons on guitar, bass, drums, percussion, theory, keyboards and vocals teaching also at his home studio. Scott also produced original commercials & music for Hanes T-Shirts; The DeLorean Sports Car; Amicus Productions & Disney.
STUDENT SUCCESS: Over the 40 years he has been teaching, many of his best students have become professional performance and recording musicians, music teachers, attended the top 5 elite music schools such as The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, The Berklee School of Music, USC’s Thornten Music Program, Julliard, Stanford, Oregon, Loyola Marymount, Vanderbilt and many others. Many of Scott’s students can be seen and heard on youtube and in clubs and concerts all around LA and touring the United States and Costa Rica. One of his more progressive drumming students, Kevin Shephard, joined a group called Tonic in 1994 and had a Number 1 & Number 2 hit record on the Pop Music Charts. Another student, Charles William Power Jones, plays with the successful band, DOPAPOD, and has been given many endorsements from top music companies for amplifiers , pedals, basses and guitars.
ORIGINAL MUSIC: For his own first original recorded compositions, Scott used the hit music group,
POCO, for his rhythm section. They included
Kim Bullard (piano),
Charlie Harrison (bass) and
Steve Chapman (drums) while adding pedal steel great,
Gary Morse, on lead solos and sweetening. Scott sang his own songs backed on vocal harmonies by the hit group,
The Chambers Brothers (Time) on three tracks and the hit songwriters,
Deborah Holland (of Animal Logic), Ed Sanford (I Keep Forgettin”) and John Townshend (Smoke From A Distant Fire by John and Ed) on another.
RECORDING & COMPOSING: Over the years in LA ,while drumming with as many as 8 bands at a time, recording film soundtracks (with David Carradine/Americana), recording albums (with Garth Hudson of The Band), Jeff Stacy and the National Debt, song demos, backing up singer songwriters, touring, teaching and playing at the Groundlings Comedy Improv Group, Scott continued to write and to collaborate with numerous wonderful artist/producer/singer/songwriter/musicians such as Mindy Sterling (Don Henley tours/piano vocals), Sherwood Ball (the voice, Jay Graydon All Stars, Rodney Crowell, Steve Lukather, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Morse), Gloria Kaye, K L Dunham, Ed Roscetti (drummer/composer), Steve Reid (the Rippingtons), Steve Real (vocal coach for Clint Black/artist), Marty Martin, Dick Wells (session vocalist) and Larry Antonino (Extraordinary Bassist / singer-songwriter for Pablo Cruise and Air Supply) to name a few.
“THEN & NOW” CD PRODUCTION: In
1999-2000, as a result of these productive collaborations, he put his “best of” collaborations and song productions together on a 75 minute compilation CD called
“Then and Now.” It contains a potpourri of song styles from Country to R&B, Jazz instrumentals, Rock, ballads and Pop. Also included is a live track of Scott’s drumming with the late, great, legendary, Blues guitarist,
Roy Buchanan recorded live at the
Coach House while on Roy’s final tour in
1988. The CD is full of well known, great musicians enhancing every note of every song. Sax artist,
Bryan Savage, recorded 3 jazz instrumentals from this CD with WAVE Radio star Trumpet Solo Artist, Rick Braun, producing two of them. Another song,
If I Were A Stronger Man, was picked up by
Rhino Publishing and placed on the
Isand Pictures film, “Nobody’s Fool” starring
Eric Roberts and Rosanne Arquette. Ed Roscetti has placed one or two others on
Muzak recently. Scott still records, co-writes and shops his original music to the new world market and has over 10 or more albums of brand new hit material still to record.
From
2002-2005, Scott was contracted to teach gifted students in an after-school music program at
Bridges Academy in the Valley. Over those 3 years, he transformed, not only the whole music program, but also, the lives and futures of every student in it. Four out of six went on to
The Berklee School of Music in Boston and The Thornten Program at USC. Over those three productive years, they performed 3 two-hour concerts years playing a wide variety of music from
Miles Davis to Billy Cobham, Chuck Berry, The Doors, Hendrix, The Cream, Steely Dan, The Allman Brothers, Credence, Freddie Hubbard, Patrice Rushen, Edgar Winter, The Beatles, Van Morrison, Dylan, Steve Miller, Motown, Herbie Hancock, their own original music and many more.
The study and application of music theory once a week over those three years enabled them to qualify for the recommendations Scott gave them upon graduation leading to their eventual acceptance to their respective music schools. The Bridges Academy experience and program, created by Scott, laid the blueprint for CAMP: The Creative Arts Music Project. Along with his many other private students, he felt the need to expand the one on one private lessons to a bigger more functional music stage where students could readily apply their weekly lessons in a real live band format and take control of their own musical future by expanding and increasing their music skills. Thus, he formed Musicians Camp.
In
2007, best friend and collaborator,
Sherwood Ball, invited Scott to write lyrics on an 80’s melodic rock project which he was working on with a great Swedish producer/musician/songwriter named
Anders Rydholm. They had formed the group, “
CODE” . Scott collaborated on the title track called “
The Enemy Within” and the album was received with incredible and welcoming rave reviews all over Europe. It was picked by critics and fans as one of the top 30 albums(#3) in all of 2007. It is available on itunes, Rhapsody; Orchard, etc.
Presently, Scott has launched
The Creative Arts Music Project where he is offering over 30 creative music courses and “live” band performance classes and workshops. He welcomes all ages and skill levels…all bands and all musicians wanting to be in a band and to learn about music. See:
Music Lessons for more information.
To reserve lesson times call: 805-529-2348(C) or 805-437-6465 (H).
