Playing for keeps

PROVO — James Oneil Miner didn't realize at the time his mother was making it possible for him to someday make beautiful music effortlessly.

In fact, he and his brother wore faces "as long as a giraffe's neck" the day she told them they could quit piano lessons over her dead body.

"It was so pivotal," Miner said. "My brother and I started at age 9 with 10 other little boys. By the eighth grade, all of them had quit but one. When Rod left us, we went home with faces longer than a giraffe's neck. My mother popped her fist on the table and said, "OK. OK. You can quit on two conditions — if I die and if you don't want to eat!'

"We wanted more to play baseball. We had no idea. That stuff was sinking in my mind, and I didn't even know it."

Originally from Sanpete County and raised in Fairview, Miner has no compunction about being known as a simple farm boy.

"My father was a music teacher at the junior high and high school. He did minstrel shows."

Miner played in the local five-piece dance band at Brigham Young University, teamed up with Janie Thompson and the Program Bureau in a group called the Wise Men.

"I was learning, building a repertoire of oldies but goodies: The Beatles, Petula Clark, Elvis, Bobby Darin, Andy Williams. It was really a neat start. It was more fun than work."

He had a number of mentors who taught and encouraged him to add chords and embellishments.

"LaVar Jenson told me, 'You're not playing it the way it's written, but it sounds good,"' Miner said. "Loren Jex taught me patience and how to chord. Blythe Taylor taught me chording structure. That freed me up."

Today, with 10 CDs under his belt and a busy engagement calendar, Miner is very comfortable at the bench and in front of the microphone. He does presentations where he uses the music to help teach empowerment for corporations, church groups and Campus Education Week audiences.

Miner was named 2004 Instrumentalist of the Year by the Worldwide Booksellers Association.

He's performed at the World Senior Games in St. George.

He performs easy-listening numbers including some light jazz, some Gershwin, show tunes and hymns, always keeping the piano dominant in the arrangement and working with a team of musicians who've been with him most of his musical career.

He has a host of original tunes, as well. Everything he plays is entirely from memory.