Jason Tonioli (pronounced: toe-knee-oh-lee) was raised in Soda Springs, Idaho and Roy, Utah. He started piano lessons when he was in Kindergarten and enjoyed practicing for the first year. Throughout his school years he disliked practicing. (However he did enjoy the fact that girls like a guy who can play piano.) His piano skills are a product of excellent teachers and a mother who wouldn’t let him quit. If it weren’t for a mother who won the “piano war” with her son, this book would never have been written.

Jason always enjoyed playing piano as long as he could play what he wanted, the way he wanted. When practicing, he would often play part of what Mozart, Beethoven or Rachmaninoff had written and part what he made up while playing. His mother and teacher often looked down upon changing what was written and always told him that when he started writing his own music, he could write and play the way “he thought” it should be done.

Partly to prove to his mom and teachers that he could write music and play it the way he wanted, and partly because he enjoyed playing, he did start writing music and has grown to love piano. He is very grateful to a mother who wouldn’t let him give up piano lessons.