Check out Scott's official website:
www.ScottWhitneyMusic.com

In The Beginning. . .

Scott began his musical journey in 6th grade, when he realized that a bunch of carefully placed upside-down shoeboxes, plus a couple of number two pencils, made for a quite useable drum set. The year — 1975.

Officially, Scott began life as a drummer in junior high school. Starting with rudimentary drum patterns and the like (by the way, is it us, or do all band directors HATE drummers!), Scott graduated to drum set playing by the end of his junior high stay. (The test for "good" drummers at Bell Jr. High? Playing the opening drum riff in Hawaii Five-O and the drum solo in Wipe Out. Extra credit for playing the drum solo to In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.)

LOOK WHAT I FOUND
Upon entering High School, Scott embraced the joy of BandGeek-dom (and based upon his grades, nothing much else!).

His two favorite classes: Marching Band [Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, welcome from Garden Grove, California, the pride of Pacifica, the Pacifica Marching Band and Drill Team!] and Jazz Band [where else can you wear white pants and not get the snot beat out of you!]. Band highlights included marching in the 1977 Rose Parade (8 miles, 25 lbs. snare drum, 98 lbs. drummer. Hmm…) and sitting in with the Buddy Rich Jazz band in San Diego.

While walking to school one day, Scott found a guitar in a trashcan. It only had five strings. It was a little beaten up. And it started Scott's guitar playing career.

Everyday after school, Scott would race home and play that guitar. Well, actually, he'd race home and play the first four bars of Smoke on the Water. One day, as he was reading through his dad's Hit's of the 60's and 70's songbook (dad is a piano player), he saw these little symbols going along with each song.

Guessing right, he placed his fingers on the strings thinking that each dot told him where to place his fingers. His first chord was a D (luckily, the missing string was the sixth, E string!). Upon that first strum, Scott heard angels singing, noticed dogs and cats were now playing together nicely, and teenagers around the world happily did their chores while humming Whistle While You Work. (In other words, that first chord was a big deal!).

This lead to even more woodshedding. Beginning a long stretch of self-taughtness (is that a word?), Scott would practice all day after school. Every day. It was GREAT!

AIM HIGH
After High School, Scott joined the United States Air Force as an Electronic Warfare Specialist. During his four years in the Air Force, Scott…

• Practiced A LOT
• Began studying Classical Guitar
• Built his first studio (which took up the entire living room of his 500 sq ft apartment)
• Started playing bass
• Recorded hundreds of songs (mostly hard rock stuff)
• Was constantly told to cut his hair
• And, thankfully, was honorably discharge

WORKIN' FOR A LIVING
Once Scott and Uncle Sam parted ways, Scott started working in the civilian world, added to his studio, started playing keyboard, played guitar with a couple of bands, and in an act of clear Air Force rebellion, grew his hair out -- a lot. (Of course in time, reason regained and Scott thankfully invested in a hair cut. Oh, and he continues to do so.)

After about 12 years of working for other folks, Scott started Whitney Communications, Inc.. His thinking was, why not start a business that lets him work in an area he likes (website development) and allows him to integrate his music in the same work! [Clever boy, that Scott]. It was during this time (which, by the way, is the present time), he started focusing more attention on his playing, recording, and performing. His first leap into getting the outside world to hear his music was to put his stuff on mp3.com.

His presence on mp3.com (www.mp3.com/ScottWhitney) has been very successful. Among many highlights include:

• His tune Classically Tamed [MP3] was discovered by filmmaker Patti Cassidy and eventually became the primary music for the independent film, "Oasis in a Firestorm", which is now being featured at the Smithsonian Institute.
• Funkajazzasourus [MP3] hit the number 11 spot in the Jazz section.
• Top 100 with every song placed
• Over 74,000 total downloads/plays!
• Featured on 40 radio stations (which is the limit of the site)

Being found on Napster, the now defunct music-sharing service, made it clear that Scott's music had wide appeal. Another example of Scott’s musical appeal is the success of Scott’s Christmas CD, ChristmAcoustic. Also during this time, Scott began doing voice over work and music-for-hire writing (example: Phrazer [MP3], a Fraiseresque tune used in a marketing campaign.).

Featured on www.ChristmAcoustic.com, both CDs highlight Scott’s solo-guitar playing, where he plays all bass, chord, and melody parts at the same time. Initially created as a holiday gift for friends, family, and clients, it sold over 570 copies in one month’s time (2000). In 2001, Scott’s ChristmAcoustic CD sales added another 5,300 units. And for 2002, over 15,500+ ChristmAcoustic and ChristmAcoustic II CDs were sold.

His latest CD, Guitjazzathon, has created a nice buzz locally and through his existing fan base, having shipped over 1,000 CDs within the first couple of months of availability. The eleven works on this CD offer a sweeping example of Scott's varied interest in guitar playing/composition. Tastes of funk and classical guitar, along with a steady stream of soothing jazz, join an impressive group of latin/bossa-nova/spanish-styled songs.

Today, Scott lives in Los Gatos, California with his wife Melissa, his two daughters Heather and Savannah, and his dog, Boswell. He can be reached via his corporate Website (www.whitcom.com) or swhitney@whitcom.com.

Check out Scott's official website:
www.ScottWhitneyMusic.com