[ Piano plays soft music ]
-I'm Billy Stover, piano teacher,
performing musician, dad of three,
and bicycle enthusiast.
I saw Willie Nelson when I was 5 years old,
and I immediately knew what I was gonna do.
-♪ Quite as often as I could have ♪
-I wanted to take piano, and my parents bought me a piano
and got me a piano teacher, and that was that.
I've been doing it ever since.
I love playing R&B most these days.
-♪ Every time you come around ♪
♪ You got to bring ♪
♪♪
Y'all know what he's talkin'. You know what I'm sayin'?
♪ Why can't we be all alone? ♪
-One of my favorites was
when I was playing in The Dusty 45s,
and we were the backing band for Wanda Jackson.
I recorded a record with Mark Lanegan,
which was really tremendous,
and I've done a lot of commercials --
music for commercials -- and the most prominent one
was with Cat Power for the iPhone 5.
We worked on a version
of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."
-♪ A merry little Christmas now ♪
-I was asked by a family to come teach their sons piano
when I was working at a smoothie shop.
So I rode my skateboard over there 28 years ago,
and I quit my job probably four weeks after that.
They spread the word, and I rode my skateboard
to all the piano lessons that I did.
And I got well-known
because I was a skateboarding piano teacher.
[ Piano plays mid-tempo music ]
♪♪
[ Rhythmic knocking on door ]
-What's up, Billy? -Hey, dude.
-How's your week going? -Pretty darn good.
What about yours?
[ Piano plays slow classical music ]
♪♪
-I would say the most challenging aspect
is to teach kids how to focus properly
in order to be a musician,
which I think has a separate style of focus.
So we focus on that quite a bit.
Can you try it again? -Yeah.
-I want to see you work the pedal.
Heel on the ground. When you're working the pedal,
you use your -- have your heel on the ground.
Mm-hmm.
♪♪
[ Up-tempo music plays ]
♪♪
One family that I have, I teach twins.
Hello, everybody. -Hi.
-And the coolest thing about that is that they play together.
They'll play duets, or they'll play
their same assignment together. And I am,
along with the parents, are just so stoked to see that.
Okay, wrists and backs,
and one, two, three, ready, and go.
[ Piano plays slow music ]
♪♪
I'm proud of all of my students,
particularly the ones that I get to start from scratch.
It is amazing to see some of these kids really catapult
to a level where I am basically
just a fingering coach for them after a while,
because they get so good
that I can't even really play what they're playing.
-Hey, Billy! How you doing? -Hello, Jamie.
[ Piano plays intense ragtime music ]
♪♪
-I think this might be my 55th recital,
but it's the first time we've ever done a Halloween recital,
so I'm pretty stoked about that.
All the kids will be in their costumes,
and you know, they're all nervous.
I am more nervous than they are,
so I won't breathe for 90 minutes.
[ Piano plays "Jingle Bells" ]
♪♪
[ Piano plays mid-tempo classical music ]
♪♪
[ Piano plays slow classical music ]
♪♪
[ Piano plays mid-tempo classical music ]
♪♪
[ Piano plays up-tempo ragtime music ]
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
I don't think I'll ever stop teaching piano.
It's what I do best. It's what I love the most.
I really have a hard time taking vacations
without feeling like I'm missing out on teaching.
Yeah!
-Follow Billy on Instagram
and learn more about his teaching
and live-performance schedule at billydisaster.com.
♪♪
Catch Art Zone Friday nights at 8
and anytime online at SeattleChannel.org/ArtZone
♪♪