Earnest Woodall (born July 24, 1959) is an American composer. Born in Bay Shore, New York and raised in suburban Long Island, New York, Woodall took up the guitar at age 10, inspired by rock, blues and jazz players. A local teacher Peter Rogine introduced him to the music of Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Adams, as well as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk and coming of age with the progressive music of Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Pink Floyd which sparked a lifelong love of both 20th-century classical music, progressive rock and jazz. Earnest Woodall soon attended the Five Towns College of Music and then the Berklee College of Music, later moving into the local music scene of the New York Tri-State area with a wide variety of bandleaders and musicians.