Getting Started On Guitar
I first managed to pick up a guitar at age nine. While visiting my Grandma in Southern Cal, I noticed a guitar leaning over in the corner of her garage, and asked if I could play it.
My uncle dusted it off, plugged it into a little amplifier that seemed really loud for its size, and looked around for a pick while I plucked and strummed the strings… I found the Em chord and reveled in the reverb-drenched sound coming from the little speaker. It instantly reminded me of the guitar sounds from the song “Wipeout!” I started plucking out the tune… I manged to figure it out pretty quick and even faked my way around the solo. It was a blast!
My uncle said, “Surf guitar, eh? Do you know the King?”
“You mean, Elvis?”
He put on a record of Dick Dale playing “Miserlou” and after that a record of The Chantays playing “Pipeline.” I loved that sound and, oh, man I so wanted a guitar of my own! Unfortunately, it was a long time before my mom surprised me with an acoustic guitar that had seen better days and was missing strings. It only lasted several weeks, but I managed to get a poor Harmony bass guitar at a pawn shop and started a band in my teens.
I ultimately found my way to my first electric guitar in the 90’s. In some ways, it was the people who shared a guitar with me, sometimes only for a moment, that made a big difference in my music life. It always helped to keep alive that spark of excitement that I first experienced when I picked up that dusty guitar in a California garage.
Now when I teach I draw on all the positive and negative experiences I’ve had in learning to play music. I strive to make learning music fun and creative by getting to know your unique aspirations and then teaching what you want to learn to move toward your musical goals. Play on!
Some of My Favorite Musical Artists
You would be just as likely to hear me strumming a guitar and singing a Beatles love song as playing a Bach suite on electric 5-string violin. Or playing Irish jigs and reels. There is so much incredible music. And I love so much of it that it’s difficult to make a short list of my favorites, but I have to mention in no particular order… The Beatles, CCR, Jimi Hendrix, Rush, Oingo Boingo, U2, Massive Attack, Muse, Radiohead, Itzhak Perlman, Nigel Kennedy, Andrew Manze, Kevin Burke, Martin Hayes, Mark O’Connor, Angela Hewitt, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, Bill Frisell, Neil Diamond, Elvis Presley, Etta James, Pablo Casals, Andrés Segovia, Quartetto Italiano, Emerson Quartet, Hagen Quartet, Gil Shaham, Mendelssohn, Resphigi, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, R. Strauss, Leonard Bernstein, Vienna Philharmonic, Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony, Georg Solti, Cleveland Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber, Claudio Abbado, and of course, John Williams, Mahler, Mozart, Haydn, Vivaldi, Beethoven, and Bach. That’s just getting started. There is so, much, more!
Please contact me if you’re interested in lessons.