Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Blog #2 The Journey Begins, my First Guitar


SO...
Every journey has a beginning, right? Well my guitar journey started not with guitar at all, but with a piano. When I was a very young boy, it was apparent that my birth parents (I'm adopted) were very short of stature. My hands and fingers were so small, that I had trouble holding a pencil. Hand/eye coordination improvement was a priority for my parents, as it soon became apparent that my curious mind moved faster than my hands could. As far back as I can remember, I was playing piano. I was at first educated by the Suzuki method. No, this wasn't a method learned on a motorcycle, but it might as well have been. The "method" included 5 variations of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" each with increasingly difficult arpeggios. Also, I had to listen to a record at night which drove the music into my subconscious; maddening, if i do say so.

Eventually, my parents found a more traditional music/piano teacher, and I took lessons and was classically trained in piano and music theory. I performed in countless recitals, and learned the "classics". I really enjoyed Beethoven and Bach the most. Very challenging and emotional.

It wasn't long until my musical interests branched out. I mentioned that i would like to try guitar, and was discouraged by my parents and others, saying my fingers were too short. Nonetheless someone (I think it was my dad) purchased me a Plastic Emenee Tiger similar to the one pictured above and right (except mine was sunburst). I played it alot, building up callouses and learning some basic chords over the years. The guitar's limitations became obvious though, and I soon wanted an electric guitar...

Monday, March 2, 2009

Blog #1 A Beginning..

I am starting this blog to document my journey back to a place I used to love... guitar nirvana. 

There was a time that I ate, slept, dreamt, and lived life through my guitar and guitar playing.  It was a great creative outlet for me, and quite a challenge. I was cursed with shorter than average fingers. This made it hard for me to play, which made me want it even more! The length of my fingers made them very strong, but harder to make chords. This thrust me into being a "lead" guitar player. 

My favorite styles of playing have always been blues, jazz and classic rock. My major influences were, like so many others Hendrix, Vaughan, Clapton, Beck, B.B., Albert and Freddy King. These masters of guitar still highly influence my style to this day. In my next post I will show the start of my journey, my first ever guitar, and post some videos of my playing.