"During those early years, I remember my family owning several different piano. A petite baby grand, an upright, another upright, and perhaps one more. The first memory I have of a piano is of myself trying to figure out Mary Had a Little Lamb on our petite baby grand. I'd play around on it, not knowing what I was doing, only knowing that somehow, this piece of wood with keys was able to make music, and I wanted to find that music.

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"So my mom started me on piano lessons. Just before my seventh birthday, Grandma took me to my first lesson. I remember walking up the sidewalk to a small, cozy house in a quiet neighborhood. The door was opened by a little woman around seventy years old. She was small, was hunched at the shoulders, had short curly hair, but the first thing I noticed was her smile. To cover up my nervousness, I asked, "How do you play?" She gave me another sweet smile, one that made you want to smile too, laughed softly and said, "That's what I'm going to show you."

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"Much to the surprise of many people, I hated lessons. It wasn't because it was against my will. Music is in my blood. The problem was, I wanted to be perfect at piano and was frustrated when I feel short. My mom taught me that practice makes perfect, and when I found that I really did get better when I tried, my music grew.​

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"My music took longer to develop into a career path than writing. Until tenth grade, I was convinced I wanted to be a French teacher and an author.

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"Then Covid happened. I was stuck inside all day, every day, and depression set in. God used that to introduce me to David Nevue, who is my ultimate music hero. I had never heard anything like his style before, having grown up with pop and classical. I was amazed at the simplicity of his songs. When I heard more, I thought, "I can do that."

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"Before Covid hit, I had been playing preludes and postludes for my church out of the hymnal. When I could finally play again in church, I arranged my own songs. In 2019 I had composed a few songs but had thrown them out early in 2020. God used David to get me back on track. Now, I have roughly thirty of my original songs and ten hymn arrangements. And my repertoire is always growing!​"

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 ~ H. E. Willis