“What’d I Say” (or “What I Say”) is an American rhythm and blues song by Ray Charles, released in 1959. As a single divided into two parts, it was one of the first soul songs. The composition was improvised one evening late in 1958 when Charles, his orchestra, and backup singers had played their entire set list at a show and still had time left; the response from many audiences was so enthusiastic that Charles announced to his producer that he was going to record it. According to Charles’ autobiography, “What’d I Say” was accidental when he improvised it to fill time at the end of a concert in December 1958. He asserted that he never tested songs on audiences before recording them, but “What’d I Say” was an exception. Charles himself did not recall where the concert took place, but Mike Evans in Ray Charles: The Birth of Soul placed the show in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Shows were played at “meal dances” which typically ran four hours with a half-hour break, and would end around 1 or 2 in the morning. Charles and his orchestra had exhausted their set list after midnight, but had 12 minutes left to fill. He told the Raelettes, “Listen, I’m going to fool around and y’all just follow me”.

Hi, my name is Ryan Van Tuyl, and since 2004 I’ve helped thousands of kids learn piano, singing, guitar, bass, drums, and songwriting in schools all over the world. The programs I’ve created teach kids how to achieve their musical dreams and become better, hardworking individuals through learning to play and perform rock, pop, hip-hop, blues, metal, and jazz music. Graduates of my programs have attended prestigious music colleges and universities. However, these programs have only been able to exist in middle-to-upper-class communities, where parents can afford to fund music education for their children directly.

While all of this has been a fantastic experience, it has left out kids who attend schools in underprivileged, more diverse communities without funding for modern music education. Schools and districts in these areas lack funding for the equipment, teachers, curriculum, and support necessary to facilitate rock-band-style programs like the ones I’ve created.

My mission was to tackle this head-on and bring these exceptional programs to students in economically challenged areas, so I sold my music schools and am launching The Van Tuyl Music Foundation to forever change music education. Our foundation will directly provide the funding for the equipment, instruction, curriculum, and support necessary to facilitate these programs.

Ryan Van Tuyl