By GARY DEMUTH
Salina Journal
LINDSBORG -- The first time Tremayne Blair touched a set of piano keys, he had the scare of his life.
Blair, who was born and raised in Galax, Va., was given a small keyboard at age 6 by his godmother. One day, the boy was watching well-known gospel singer Kirk Franklin perform a song on television.
Without thinking much about it, Blair began picking out the song note by note on his keyboard. His mother, Beverlee Trotter, stopped and watched him, awestricken. Then she began to cry.
"I looked up and didn't know what was wrong," Blair said. "She said to me, 'Do you know what you've done?' I looked at the keyboard, and I got scared to death. You only see things like that in movies or in fairy tales. After that, I was done with the piano."
It was 17 years before Blair sat in front of a piano again. By this time, the 23-year-old was ready to embrace his gift of playing music by ear.
He wrote a song, "We Are One," a gospel-oriented rhythm and blues song that ended up being professionally recorded in New York. It was released on a national underground review, which Blair described as a "radio version of YouTube."
The station is designed to attract the attention of record executives to new artists, Blair said. Songs are put on the radio review, listeners vote for their favorites, and the results are charted. Blair's song reached the top 10 on the review's Christian chart within a week of airplay and soon reached No. 1.
The song's popularity attracted the attention of executives at Christian radio stations, as well as representatives from Sony Records.
"I don't know if all this will lead to anything, but it shows people like my music," said Blair, now 26 and a junior music major at Bethany College.
He wanted to be a doctor
Blair grew up as the only boy in a family of five. He was raised with a twin sister and three other sisters by a single mother who worked as an interior decorator.
"My mother is my superhero," Blair said.
After his piano scare, Blair kept music at a distance. The 6-footer became a skilled basketball guard in high school and decided to major in biomedical chemistry in college.
"I had an idea I wanted to be a doctor," he said.
Blair was the first person in his family to attend college, a fulfillment of his mother's longtime dream.
While attending classes at nearby Witheville Community College, Blair became interested in playing music again. To encourage him, his older sister bought Blair a new keyboard from Wal-Mart.
He began to pluck out a song that had been forming in his head, which he called "We Are One." The Christian song encourages people to see their similarities rather than their differences, or "when we get to heaven, we're going to be one," Blair said.
After hearing the song, friends encouraged Blair to switch his college major to music, but he thought it would be a waste of time.
"I can't read music, so I thought I'd be wasting the professors' time," he said. "I didn't know you could get into college without reading music."
A chance to record
In the meantime, a family friend who worked as a recording engineer in New York had heard Blair play "We Are One" on his home keyboard and was impressed enough to invite Blair to New York City to record the song in a professional studio.
In the summer of 2007, Blair took the engineer up on his offer. While performing his song in the studio, Blair attracted the interest of the Chicago Mass Choir, a professional choir of nearly 100 members who were recording a CD in an adjoining studio.
Blair taught the song to choir members, who provided background accompaniment. Blair was amazed at how their voices lifted his composition to heights he'd never envisioned.
"I'd never been surrounded by musicians of that caliber and talent before," he said.
Blair was given a CD of his recording and went back to Virginia, happy to have had the opportunity to record his song with professional musicians.
Recruited for basketball
Soon after returning home, Blair made the decision to attend Kansas Wesleyan University.
"They recruited me for basketball," he said.
Once at Wesleyan, Blair still found himself conflicted between pursuing music and medicine.
"I still had dreams of being a doctor," he said. "I could be financially secure and help people. It was hard to step out on faith and embrace music. I prayed and prayed about it."
Being the first person in his family to go to college, Blair didn't want to disappoint his mother by giving up his goal of becoming a doctor.
"I had done all this work and was making good grades, and she's bragging about it -- 'My baby's studying to be a doctor,' " he said. "When I told her I wanted to study music, I expected a lecture. But she said, 'I've known that gift was inside you since you were 6.' She supported me 100 percent."
Transferring to Bethany
After a semester at Wesleyan, Blair decided to transfer to Bethany College for the spring semester to study piano under Daniel Masterson, professor of music, piano and music theory at the college.
Masterson said he was impressed with Blair's natural skills on the keyboard.
"He's a talented improvisational pianist," Masterson said. "He doesn't do trite chord selections. The challenge is for him to learn to read music. He has the music in him already. He just has to connect what he already knows to music theory."
Unbeknownst to Blair, the engineers who had recorded his song last summer in New York had placed it on the underground review in April.
His song's success encouraged Blair to keep writing music for a full-length CD. He's already completed a second song, "I Am With You," as well as a gospel version of "The Lord's Prayer."
God was calling me
Blair also performed his first concert in August at the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Hutchinson. He said he's proud of what his music did for a number of people who listened to his musical message.
"Thirty-three people have given their life back to the Lord after hearing my songs," he said. "Now that I'm back into music, I know it was God calling on me to learn my craft."
Blair hopes to schedule another concert in the Salina or Lindsborg area in the near future.
As for the future, Blair's plan is to complete his education at Bethany and then pursue a career as a musician and songwriter.
"I think I have something to say, a positive message to share," he said. "Every song I've written is based on me getting closer to God. I'll be helping people in a different way now."
nReporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.
©Salina Journal