ToneGym Hero: Kaleb Stock

Artist, Pianist, and Music Producer, currently from Eastern Tennessee, USA. Kaleb Stock is this month's ToneGym Hero!

Who are you, and Where are you from?

My name is Kaleb Stock and I grew up in the foothills of the rocky mountains in Colorado. For the past decade, I have been living in the foothills of Eastern Tennessee, with a couple of years sprinkled in Nashville.

How did you get into music?

When I was five years old my parents enrolled me in Suzuki piano lessons. Both my parents had taken piano/music classes as children but had both stopped their lessons early on. They both regretted not continuing with music so it was important to them that their children take lessons and not stop.

To be honest, music was a struggle for me for about the first decade. I did not enjoy playing music until I picked up the guitar around the age of fourteen. This is where music began to click for me. I thought the guitar was way more interesting and way cooler than the piano. I dove into chords on the guitar and it was really exciting to me how easy and quick it was to learn a song on the guitar. I could simply learn four or five chord shapes and then I could strum my way through a new song. It was exhilarating for me and I would take my dad’s guitar everywhere I could those first few months just in case I had the opportunity to practice. After the initial excitement of the guitar wore off I started to realize that I could play these same “guitar” chords on the piano. This created another surge of excitement for me, but this time on the piano.

With my newfound skill of chords on the piano, I began playing a lot of music at church on the piano with the worship band. Also, around that time in high school, a few buddies and I formed a band together. In my junior year of high school, I was finally old enough that I talked my parents into letting me quit piano lessons. I was super excited to be out of the rigid structure of more traditional or classical training. But I kept playing a lot of music by ear at church and with my friends in our band. During that first year of my life without lessons, was when music became my own. Many of you probably have a similar experience, where music became something you could never give up anymore. This was that experience for me.

I began to dream about what it would be like if my high school band could really “make it” and if we could make a living doing this. So the next year I re-enrolled in piano lessons, but this time with fresh determination to be the best pianist and piano player I could be. I went on to get my degree in music with an emphasis in piano performance, and I guess you could say it’s been history ever since. At this point, I have been playing the piano for over twenty-five years and I’m still excited to be practicing and growing on this instrument.

What do you like to do for fun outside of working on music?

My wife and I love gardening. It started as a small hobby for me but for the past couple of years, we have had a rather large garden. We love working out there, the slower pace of life, the time to think, the time to talk, the fresh air, the dirt under our nails, and the countless lessons we learn from the earth are amazing. I enjoy taking time to plan out the garden in the spring and researching gardening techniques to try.

I must say though my two favorite things about gardening is eating something you’ve grown and the slower pace. In a culture that is so fast-paced, it’s grounding for me to be doing something that moves and develops so slowly. And eating something you grew yourself, well that brings a real sense of accomplishment with it.

What's your most useless skill or talent?

This one is hard! I was going to say being able to wiggle my ears but Shani used that in the previous ToneGym interview.

When I was in middle school/early high school my younger brother and I designed and built a three-story treehouse in the Cottonwood tree in our backyard. Our grandfather owned a sawmill that we worked at during the summers and he was happy to give us wood to use for this endeavor. It still stands there in my hometown today! Although I’m not sure how stable it is anymore.

What inspires you to keep making music?

The emotional and influential power behind music. It always amazes me how music can so quickly change the atmosphere or the emotion in a room. It can quickly build a sense of community within a group, or it can inspire and bring courage to one’s life. While struggling through something hard music can bring new energy and a renewed resolve to push on ahead. The capability to move people in a positive direction with music is what inspires me to continue to strive in this field.

If you could sit down to a session with any artist, who would it be?

I would love to sit down with Jacob Collier, his mind is incredible. I have gone on many a deep dive watching videos of him lecturing on his understanding of music. I find his freedom of expression (in playing/performing) and his understanding/mastery of the language of music to be very fresh. It would be an incredible opportunity to be able to sit and learn with him for a session.

Any habits you have before starting a session?

I have found that I do my best work when my environment is set up correctly for me. This means a clean and tidy workspace along with some lighting for the right mood. Each day when I come into work I typically spend a few minutes tidying things up and then I turn on all the extra lights in my studio and get to work.

What have you been working on lately?

I have been working to release one single at a time from my EP titled Dreams. The latest single, Guard The Flame, is due out on April 22. The whole project is a small collection of songs around the idea of striving to bring one’s dreams to life. It’s tough seeing so many people living life weekend to weekend dreading the coming Monday. To live a life fully alive and packed with purpose takes a lot of courage and intentionality. I find it hard to maintain the balance needed for me to stay the course toward my own dreams, and these songs are some anthems I have written to try to help remind me of where I’ve been, where I am at now, and where I am aiming to go.

My goal for this EP is to inspire others to take up their dreams and pursue their passions; to live the life of their dreams. Life is too short to live it any other way.

If you could pick one, what would be the theme song of your life?

I would pick Elias Dummer’s Kyrie Eleison (It’s Mercy We Need). The world around us all seems to be falling apart faster than we can put it back together. In our society and culture, we finish one hardship or mishap to stumble on to the next, and then another just after that, with no time to catch our breath. There seems to be less and less love and compassion for those around us. I feel it in myself as well, my lack of compassion for some around me and their circumstances. My inability to slow myself down enough to have mercy for others.

I am picking this as the theme song of my life right now because it’s been on repeat a lot lately, and also because I do want to live a life that is empathetic toward those around me and the events happening on a global scale in our world. I simply want to have a heart that shows and shares mercy with those around me.

What's your favorite musical instrument?

Definitely the piano, after spending so much time on it I have the most command over this instrument and it feels like home to me. I don’t get to play an acoustic piano very often but this is especially true if I am playing somewhere that has a well-kept Steinway Model B.

What's your favorite ToneGym feature?

Honestly, the daily workout has been my go-to. I would like to dive more into some of the other features available here on the site, especially the competitions. But, I love the daily workouts because it makes it a quick and easy way to jump into some ear training on a daily basis, it’s all about increasing one’s skill 1% at a time. A little here and a little there.

What does the future hold for Kaleb Stock?

Right now I am working to finish up the last track for my Dreams EP titled, Slow Down Kid, which I aim to release in the next 2 to 3 months. Past that deadline, I will be writing for a new project and collaborating with friends.

I am also working to develop some passive income streams for my family. One of those streams is an online piano course to help other students capture that magic I did while learning to play with chords on the piano. If anyone would like to be a ginny pig for this project, (spending some time in this developing course work) I would happily welcome critical feedback!

Follow Kaleb Stock on his Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Spotify YouTube, and Website.