Sound Strategies

Good Vibrations in 2026

Geoffrey H. Miller

Whether it’s an Adam Sandler movie set in Hawaii, this past Christmas’ Cadbury Egg commercials, or being played on loop as department stores roll out their newest swimsuit line, the music of the Beach Boys is a staple in our music zeitgeist. I personally was exposed to them for the first time while listening to the “Cocktail” soundtrack as a kid in the 80’s. For many, seeing a Beach Boys concert at King’s Island or on tour with Chicago is a fond memory. No matter how old you are and what type of music you enjoy listening to, everyone recognizes the music of the Beach Boys and most likely has a story of how their music has affected them. Very few however, will be able to boast of the rather unique story the band students in Loveland Middle School and Loveland High School can tell. Their exposure to the Beach Boys includes performing alongside Brian Wilson’s counterpart and keyboard player, Gary Griffin.

Gary Griffin joined the Beach Boys in 1977 while studying at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. He essentially pestered his way into the band by insisting that he knew all of their music and they should just give him a chance... He has been on tour with them ever since. This led him to small parts of the television shows “General Hospital” and “Full House.” Gary also released a solo album in 2017. Recently, he moved back to Southwest Ohio to be closer to his family which is how he got involved with the music program at the Loveland School District.

The history students at Loveland High School interviewed World War II fighter pilot Tom Griffin from the Doolittle Raiders. Every year that they brought Tom out, he would insist that his son was much more interesting and that the history department really should bring him out instead. When Tom’s health began to decline, our history department took him up on the offer and invited his son Gary to come and talk to the History of Pop Culture class. Gary was happy to come in on one condition, he wanted to meet our band kids.

Gary started coming to Loveland about four years ago and we would interview him about life on the road, working with Brian Wilson, and his favorite cities to play. The jazz bands would learn “Surfin USA” and Gary would sit in and tell us that we should really be playing it in E instead of Eb as that’s what Brian did in ‘83. Every year I would joke with Gary about turning this meetup into a much bigger event. After the third year of this conversation he finally called me out on it: “You say that every year but then I don’t ever hear from you.” That was all I needed to hear to know that he was serious about doing something alongside the Loveland Jazz Bands that the Loveland community would never forget.

This past February, we did it. An all Beach Boys concert complete with a silent auction of surf boards, hula skirt decorations, and musicians in Hawaiian shirts, we played all of the top hits from the acclaimed surf rock band. Gary came into the school to rehearse several times. He would trade solos with the students, talk to them about what Brian was thinking about when he composed “God Only Knows,” or how the saxophonist for the Beach Boys, Joel Peskin, would love to hear how well the senior in high school is matching his interpretation on “Kokomo.”

The sheet music to the Beach Boys catalog has been out of print now for a couple of decades so the students had to learn to transcribe. The members of the top high school jazz band were divided into small groups and arranged the charts for themselves and the middle school jazz band. Gary would come in and correct some harmonies along the way by saying “what are the chords there? Would you like to know what they should be?” always with a smile on his face. In the end, both the creation of the pieces and their performance were a huge success.

In the spring of 2025, before Brian Wilson’s passing, the Beach Boys had four consecutive sold out shows in a 3,000 seat theater in Phoenix, Arizona. A year later, the keyboardist for the Beach Boys kicked off his spring tour by playing for a few hundred lucky Loveland community members in a middle school cafetorium. It really goes to show how kind and caring Gary Griffin is. Motivated solely by a desire to educate young people on the importance of the music he has devoted his life to for the past 50 years, he and our kids left that show with an experience none of us will ever forget.

Geoffrey H. Miller serves as the Director of Bands at Loveland High School, where he conducts the two concert bands, two curricular jazz bands, and the marching band. As the band director at LHS, Mr. Miller has commissioned works from Dave Martin and Alex Shapiro, worked with Bootsy Collins, Jay Jennings, Gary Griffin, Dave King, Christian McBride, John Mackey, Travis Cross, Ben Chamberlin, Kevin Holtzman, Frank Troyka, and Matthew Arou. Under the direction of Mr. Miller, the marching band has traveled to Los Angeles, California and most recently to Orlando, Florida. Geoffrey received his Masters in Music from Northwestern University where he studied with Mallory Thompson in the field of Wind Conducting. He received two Bachelors in Music from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati in Music Education and Clarinet Performance. Prior to his graduate study, Mr. Miller taught for six years in the Texas Public School System. Geoffrey Miller is President Elect for the District 14 chapter of the Ohio Music Educators Association, a member of the Conn- Selmer VIP Program, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

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