Ever heard of a French horn virtuoso becoming the “best ragtime/boogie-woogie pianist on the planet?” Bob Milne made such an incredible splash across the world that he was chosen to be interviewed by the Library of Congress for their official records of American music. His contribution was so great that he was thereafter designated a “National Treasure.” Bob continued traveling far and wide to play for audiences of all kinds, from small-town communities to presidents and generals, for dignitaries at home and abroad. He came to be named a “Musical Ambassador” by the U.S. Department of State. It’s been an exciting journey, yet these fancy titles have not gone to Bob Mile’s head. He is still as unassuming and fun-loving as ever, enjoying every minute of his colorful career.
Bob began his musical career as a virtuoso French horn player at the esteemed Eastman School of Music. He was an extremely gifted symphony player. When the symphony players
would take breaks from rehearsals and after performances were over, they often gathered in the local singalong bar. That was when Bob found himself at a piano and discovered the fun of playing for delighted listeners. Although he had never taken piano lessons, his ear guided him to accompany the singers, and although he didn’t know the songs they were singing, he learned them quickly as he heard them. Bob became so comfortable that his piano-playing went far beyond accompanying - he found himself improvising amazing arrangements on the spot.
Bob has always said that his teacher is his own ear. His slogan is “If it doesn’t sound good, it’s no good.” There are endless stories of his hearing a tune for the first time on the way to the concert and performing it onstage when he got there. One favorite is of an Okinawan song recording that was played for Bob on the airplane a few hours before concert time. His performance was so heartfelt that it brought tears from the audience. Bob never practices and never has. However, he has played hours and hours on the job, starting with a 25-year career in Detroit area restaurants and seafood houses, which eventually led to a 25-year solo concert career. He asks, “What fun is it playing to the four walls?” To Bob, the fun is communicating with the listeners through music. He says, “I can’t perform without an audience.”
Bob plays many various styles of music. He became known for playing ragtime maybe because he enjoys this spirited music with its infectious, syncopated rhythms. Bob says, “It’s good music!” Ragtime is a folk style of music, not easily learned in the conservatory. It’s a style that is accessible to everyone – players and listeners alike. It dates back to string instruments in the 1870s, and became very popular by the 1890s, when pianos were a major form of family entertainment. When Bob plays ragtime, he rises out of the nostalgia to create a vital and creative force in the here and now. His ragtime is wild and spectacular, or tender and soul-stirring.
Bob is an historian and likes to share his knowledge of the musicians and composers who created various musical styles through the ages. During his concerts he adds stories from historical accounts as well as from his own experience. His “insider’s view” commentary draws audiences in. Bob knows people as he knows the piano, and audiences get caught up in his enthusiasm and joy. His style of playing has often been described as “listening to four pianos at once.” Yes, he can actually hit that many notes.
Shortly after 9/11 Bob was asked to perform a “Concert for America” at a music festival in the 1000 Islands (upstate New York). He didn’t really know what to do at first, so decided to
create a collage of American songs describing important events in our country’s history. He would play them in chronological order, beginning around the Revolutionary War period (Shenandoah and others), then moved forward to the Civil War era. He chronologically spliced in “America the Beautiful” (1893), then moved on to World Wars I & II songs. During the initial performance, Bob realized he should put something into this medley about New York. He played a few strains of Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York,” then created a sound on the keyboard of enemy planes and fearsome panic. The audience released an audible gasp. Then he improvised the sound of smashing and falling glass as it rained down on the city streets, followed by panic in the streets. Bob repeated this for the second skyscraper attack. After the final crashing of glass he began playing mournful snippets of shattered American songs. “Amer-i-ca the beaut-i…(crash). When this medley finally finished 45 minutes later with the triumphant Star Spangled Banner bringing our country back to its feet, the audience was in tears. The standing ovation lasted ten minutes. And Bob, unassuming as he is, had just simply made up the entire performance on the spot and on the stage as he retold the history of America through music.
The songs come from inside his head and not from sheet music. The tunes play in his head a split second before his fingers transfer the music to the keys. “Whatever comes in my mind, I play.” He plays everything by ear and in different keys. The result: no one plays from the heart as Bob Milne does. Bob says, “I never have any idea what I’m going to play. I just walk out on stage and get a feel for what I should be playing.”
His passion for music has led him to teach courses on the history and styles of the ragtime era and music in general – all over the country, in schools, university, adult learning programs - as well as here in Lapeer. Coming up this year in September is Bob’s 19th Annual Michigan Music Retreat.
While keeping up a very busy concert touring schedule, Bob actually composed an opera, based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The music, words and orchestrations occurred to him as he drove from one concert engagement to the next. In the evening, when he stopped for the night, he would notate what he had composed that day in his head. He never uses a piano to compose music. He “hears it in his head” and writes it out on paper. (Actually, on the computer now due to hand cramps.)
Milne is notorious for playing multiple rhythms, switching between different pieces of music and carrying on full conversations all at the same time. He hears entire symphonies, even
more than one at the same time, in his head, and can focus on certain instruments at any point during the performance’s duration. This feat, from a neurological perspective, is almost
unfathomable. Neurologist Kerstin Bettermann, of Penn State in Hershey, PA, is currently studying Bob’s highly unusual musical abilities. Bob and Dr. Bettermann were interviewed by NPR about his incredible brain. To hear the podcast, go to www.radiolab.org and click on “A Four-Track Mind,” which has now been running continuously for over thirteen years. The testing that has been done has shown that Bob can listen, in his head, to four different symphonic pieces at the same time. If you tell him to stop at a certain point, he can describe to you exactly where he is in each of the four pieces. Because many neuroscientists agree that what Bob does is impossible, Dr. Bettermann refers to Bob as a genius. Dr. Bettermann explains that this amazing ability seems to be related to emotion. She says, “emotions deepen the way that we experience things, and make for stronger memories.” Bob feels strong emotions in the music he hears and plays.
From his beginnings as a symphony horn player (as a 10th grader, Bob was the youngest member of the Pontiac Symphony) to becoming the subject of genius brain studies, Bob has had an incredible career. His “incidental career,” as he calls it, skyrocketed from saloon piano playing to fabulous concert tours all over the world. He calls it “an incidental career” because it just seemed to unfold in front of him by itself. This is not to say that Bob and Linda simply had a free ride through life. It’s far from it. There have been many pitfalls along the way, and it has taken much hard work and persistence to make it all come together.
Bob has made some interesting friends. His Maasai chieftain friend, Paul Kitesho, visited Bob in Lapeer in June 2018. Bob helped him in his mission to raise awareness about his Maasai orphans school in Kenya. Bob played for Neil Armstrong, and they became friends. Same with such luminaries as Walter Cronkite, George & Barbara Bush, well known names from Congress, Clint Eastwood, Garth Brooks, Ken Burns, and other famous-name film makers. Bob became a consultant to the leader of the Swiss Parliament, Luzi Stamm, becoming Herr Stamm’s advisor on American customs.
In 2013 Bob found himself as a speaker on a Boston convention program that featured over-achievers. Also on the program was Wim Hof, the famous Dutch adventurer, who through
deep breathing exercises and immersing himself in cold weather has been medically certified as being “immune to every disease known to man.” Bob had the opportunity to spend the whole day learning this man’s techniques and secrets, and as a result brought these methods back to Lapeer. He and his wife, Linda, own and operate Acorn Lodge, a short-term rental property on Stanley Road. Surrounded by 30 acres of woods and 1 ½ miles of trails, they feature “forest bathing.” Forest bathing is simply spending time in the woods, taking in all the health benefits that the trees have to offer, as well as inhaling great amounts of clean oxygen that the trees constantly produce. Oxygen is more and more referred to as “nature’s antibiotic.” Bob and Linda pass on the information from Wim Hof and forest bathing experts to their guests, resulting in people sitting on benches in the woods reading their books for hours on end. Bob points out certain mosses on trees that only grow in pure air, as well as other air/water indicators which are found in the woods.
Bob composes beautiful music by driving around. He directed his Christmas carol “Who Will Come” on Christmas Eve 2016, sung by St. Paul’s Methodist Church choir, Rochester, MI,
accompanied by a string quartet. It is said to be one of the most beautiful carols of all time. Bob and his Nashville musician friends premiered his country tune “Please Don’t Forget Me, Tennessee” at the University of the South, Sewanee, TN, Feb 2017. The state governor and senator want it to be the State Song of Tennessee. Bob began composing music at an early age. He actually first heard, in his head, his Trumpet Concerto while he was a French horn student at the Eastman School of Music in 1962. In 2012, forty years later, Bob wrote it out from memory for his friend and legendary trumpet player, Dave Greenhoe. In later years he composed a flute suite and a violin suite, more than 40 piano rags, Concerto in Rag for Piano & Orchestra, and several classical art songs to the poetry of Robert Frost and Michigan poet Stillman Elwell. He wrote the music for The Christmas Chimes, a musical written by Tom Byrne, and for Orvie, a musical written by David Good about Orville Hubbard, the infamous mayor of Dearborn, MI.
Fun-loving and happy to share his music, knowledge and stories with others, Bob is a natural teacher. Below are some nuggets of wisdom he has passed along to his students:
-Listen to everyone, copy no one.
- I always tell music students, “never try to show anyone how good you are. Show them how good the music can be.”
-I never play a piece the same way twice. That way I avoid boredom in myself and in the audience. Listeners can tell when a piece has been played over and over the same way and is no longer fresh and interesting.
-Average listeners may not know musical terms and names of things, but they know what sounds good and what doesn’t. You’ll never fool their ears. Don’t lose sight of the fact that you are playing for an audience that says “I don’t know anything about music.” But they do. And the minute you let them down you’re fired.
-I have played concert halls for over 25 years. Before that I played in places around Detroit every night of the week for over 25 years. And I can say that I have never, ever, played anything as written.
We can take some of those nuggets and apply them to our every day lives. Be yourself... Do you... Don't be afraid to color outside of the lines...
If you get the chance to meet Bob and Linda, you are in for a treat! So much knowledge and many, many, many interesting stories you just don't hear every day! Check out the lodge if you want a quick little get away close to home or a venue for a wedding or event, and you just might run into Bob and Linda.