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ROCK MEANS MORE THAN MUSIC
 John Moore has performed throughout the United States and Canada, Europe and Japan, as well as into the studio doing sessions for other artists. (Submitted photo). By Jeff Petersen Observer Staff Writer hat do you do with a geology degree? Well, duh, go into music and horsemanship. At least that's what John Moore did. The Cortez, Colo., cowboy is teaching music and horsemanship workshops this week in La Grande and giving a concert Saturday night along with the Eastern Oregon University Fiddle Ensemble. The horsemanship workshop will take place Saturday and Sunday at Wind Whistle Arena on Leffel Road. Observers are free to watch. Moore can tell you about not only the mechanics of the natural forces of the earth but also the mechanics of the mandolin. He knows about movement of continents and movements in music and can quickly analyze what's right with a player's technique and what needs work. He's adept at erosion patterns and horse-training patterns, how mountains and maestros are made, where you find springs, where you find oils and where you find horse-training strategies that really work. Moore is more than just a traveling knowledge show, however. He's played music with such big names as Roy Clark and Earl Scruggs. "They're just folks. They're both good people. They have a country background and are well grounded." Moore got his start in music at an early age, but it wasn't love at first sight. Some kids say they want to be a firefighter, astronaut or musician when they grow up. "For me, (musician and horse trainer) were not something as a kid I decided to be," he said. Both just evolved into a career. He got a solid foundation while putting himself through college by playing music and training horses. "Both of these ways to make a living are tenuous ways to pay the bills," he said. You generally don't just get out of college and decide to be a studio musician, Moore said. "You have to pay your dues, go through the school of hard knocks, get yourself into the scene," he said. "All those dues I paid from the time I was 12 years old," he said. Music and horsemanship have everything in common, Moore said. "One of the big things is that you're teaching a colt to do specific things, teaching them how to learn, processing challenges when they come up. How will they accept stress, learning situations? Will they freak out and run from them, or learn from them?" In both horsemanship and music, separating movement into segments is important. "Training yourself to play music and teaching a horse involves breaking things down into component parts," he said. "In the same way you'd break a golf swing down into its component parts and so fix the part of the swing that needs fixing, we do something similar with a sheet of music and with music technique, or with horse movements like backing or spinning." "A fluid movement is a sum of its parts." The best testimonial students at a music or horsemanship workshop can give is that they have a clear picture of what they're doing. "A lot of people who play music or train horses do what they're doing because that's the way they were taught to do it," Moore observed. "People tend to learn things a little robotically." To enhance their performance, they need to learn to ask the question why? "After they take a workshop, they have the ability to question the wisdom of what they have been taught and in some cases make changes" as to how they go about their business. IF YOU GO Mandolin workshop tonight at 6 Guitar workshop Tonight at 7:30 To sign up, contact Dwayne Boyer at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 962-3855. Price $20 per workshop Private lessons a limited number may be available Horsemanship workshop Saturday and Sunday Concert with members of the EOU Fiddle Ensemble, 7 p.m. Saturday, Zabel Hall lecture theater, $4 general, $3 students and seniors Will be done shortly before 8 when Curtis Stigers quartet performs jazz/blues concert at McKenzie Theatre |
