About Me

• I was born in Massachusetts.
• I now live in Naples, Florida - since 2013.
• I ran away from home when I was 12 and had my first apartment and car at 15.
• The last grade I completed was 8th grade (equivalent to a college grad now that I live in FL!).
• I'm a former Army Ranger and graduated top of my class out of 316 men.
• I'm a certified Combat Lifesaver - Equivalent to EMT+
• I was a U.S. Army infantryman from 1990 - 1998 and my nickname was Danbo. Let's just say I always tried to be all I could be. I was qualified expert in every light and heavy weapon the military had to offer. Expert driver badges for all vehicles (light and armored). The military life is happily behind me and the one thing I can say I truly hate, is violence.
• I'm a highly decorated Veteran.
• I'm also a disabled Vet (though my disabilities are fortunately now mild to nonexistent).
• I have 2 computer licenses and 12 certifications including A+ and licensed to teach and repair.
• I have 13 Scuba certifications including Rescue Diver and Master Diver with instructor cert around the next reef.
• Soon to get my Private Pilot's License!
• I am the commercial lead plumber for a company here in Naples, FL. As much as I wish I could put more into music, my schedule is off the charts.
• I rarely sleep more than 4 hours a night. Often 2 and many times I'll simply skip sleep entirely.
• I'm a huge nature lover and miss my days fostering for the MSPCA.
• I'm still trying to decide what I want to be when (if) I grow up.
• I'm close to building my own house but having a hard time settling on where that will be. Although I love the climate here where I am, I'm not sure this place is where I see my dream home over the decades to come.

Why the name, DanHoven?

I grew up loving hard rock & heavy metal. The complexity of the music was what I preferred, such as guitar solo's, drum solo's, etc. The harmonizing of the two guitarists of Iron Maiden is still symphony to my ears. My first passion was drums with Neil Peart's complexity being my favorite! I then picked up guitar and although I love speed metal and finger tapping, classical style plucking was more me. Piano was more accidental but has become my instrument of choice and although I still lean towards the extreme and more difficult pieces, it has been piano that has also taught me some of the most beautiful music is often the simplest and least complex. Okay, so back to DanHoven...

I was stationed in Baumholder Germany. Our recreation center didn't have a drum set and the only instruments were a couple of acoustic guitars with broken strings (cheap nylon strings at that). They did however have a 9' Bosendorfer piano. One night I was sitting at the helm of this beast in a box and playing "Wasted Years" (speed metal) on the piano, even though it's meant for guitar. This particular piano had the lower keys that only some Bosendorfers have. Although only a piano newbie, it sounded monstrous and powerful, especially having such a large body to resonate within. I was hitting the notes rather hard since I finally had it down fairly well. I finished playing and an elderly gent and his lovely wife started applauding behind me, saying; "Bravo, bravo". I laughed, blushed and thanked them for their obvious horrible taste in music, haha. The gent asked; "Was that Rachmaninoff?" and I replied; "No sir, not sure who that is but it was Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden". He looked as puzzled as I of this Rachmaninoff gent.

At the time, I always liked classical piano but didn't know much about it or names of the composers of the past. If there was indeed a pianist that actually sounded like what I was attempting to play, then I wanted to hear him or her! I needed to learn more, so he wrote the name down and I held onto it for a year or two before returning to the states. I had it tucked in my wallet and one day in Cambridge, MA, I walked to a music store. A customer heard me ask about Rachmaninoff and after being pointed to the general area by the store clerk, this person came over to talk. He sifted through the cd's going on and on about this one particular performance of his 3rd concerto by Martha Argerich. To this day, over 20 years later it is my absolute favorite. So intense and emotional (for me anyway) that I now rarely listen to it because it's exhausting to even hear.

During my time in Germany I was fortunate to visit the birth house of my favorite composer, Ludwig Van Beethoven. The Romantic period of course. Although I had grown up with an interest and like of classical piano (mainly from bugs bunny cartoons) my friends only knew my rock interest and in my garage band wanna-be days I was either drumming or on guitar. It was a shock for them one day when something came up to where I defended classical and said how much I liked it. I explained how it had the same complexities that drew me into the music of hard rock. I told them of my trip to Bonn Germany and a story in which I went over the rope and touched Beethoven's piano (an off limits harpsichord). I told them how I have wondered if he possessed me because despite not knowing how to read music, his music in particular comes extremely easy for me. Well, easy for someone with zero music education anyway. That was the day I got my nick name, DanHoven. Since then, I've learned more about classical music, it's history and fine composers enough to lecture at Oxford and raise the brows of professors, haha. No matter what you learn about it though, I feel you really can't get the full understanding of one until you learn their material. Playing various pieces of Beethoven in following the timeline of his hearing loss really makes sense why he did what he did. For me it settles the long debate of Moonlight Sonata (not named that by Ludwig of course) and the fact that it was not a love song in any way. Such a sad piece actually. Ask me about it!

I took a piano lesson once. It wasn't for me. I had already spent some time in discovering music on my own and with the lesson came far too many rules.


While the teacher stepped away to get my piano book I started to play. She complemented my playing for several things until she saw how I was playing, or better put, my finger placement. The biggest and most appreciated compliment was how fluidly/smoothly I was playing but soon after she was only fixated with which finger played which note. I played how I played because to get the needed fluidity for a particular part and having small hands I would have to do whatever I had to do. A year later I would simply adjust for what was needed at that time. Otherwise, if I played with "proper" fingering it would sound mechanical and never heart felt. More babble on this on the "Learn" page.


I do not read music. I don't play by the rule of "Time". In many cases "Time" would be important, such as playing in a symphony, but when I sit to play one night, my time may be exactly as the original, or perhaps another night I play with a different perspective and mood and the time may vary. Many self made critics on the subject (and haters) tend to be also fixated on "Rules" and keeping time and "Proper technique" over Passion and playing with the heart. As someone who has played primarily by ear I can say hands down, the absolute best performance of the Rach 3 (Rachmaninoff) is Martha Argerich, and if you shut your eyes and listen you would agree. Her passion is second to none. She becomes the piece and it takes on life as she plays. Then read the comments. Most are haters and opinions solely based on her facial features and body language when playing, or the actual term used when judging concert pianists is; "Artistic expression". She is playing (in my personal opinion) the most difficult piece in existence and more passionately than my brain can even take in, but she is almost expressionless. For some reason that's more important to some people. Certainly not music lovers. It truly makes me sad in reading criticisms.