 Spring 1977, it was all over! When I heard Jimmy Page hit the open "D" string and toggle the pickup selector switch and launch into the live version of "The Song Remains the Same", I knew my life would never quite "remain the same"... Having spent a few years playing Trumpet, French horn and Trombone in various Junior High School Jazz Bands and Orchestra’s I was completely oblivious to this style of heavy guitar driven music.
This newfound discovery would become a sonic obsession as this new universe unveiled itself. The first order of business was to learn how to play guitar, my sister was taking lessons and had a nylon classical guitar and she quickly lost the desire to learn so there it was…A "real guitar" to practice with and learn how to play like my new guitar hero’s.
I signed up for Lessons with a really great teacher, Philippe Willems who in turn was a student of the Legendary "Chord Chemist" Ted Greene. After a few years studyingwith Philippe I was fortunate enough to take a few Lessons with Ted Greene, sadly though I was just out of high school and did not have enough money to continue studying with Ted.
For the next 10-15 years I was involved with a very successful "local" heavy/thrash metal band and just about the time when every single L.A. metal band was getting signed we were right there primed for national stardom but as fate would have it, we were forced to kick the singer out and could never quite regain the momentum once obtained.
Interestingly enough, once the metal band thing was over, my guitars went into storage not to be reopened for many years, up until about June 2003 I had not put in many hours on the fret board but all that dramatically changed when I was acting as a computer consultant to TBD and Alliance PFL, who service many of the music industry leaders for their promotion and printing needs.
Whilst there, Taylor Guitars were always being played in the executive offices and it struck me like lightning "That’s right..! I play too!"…ever since it has been non stop, The guitar cases are always open and have invested in recording gear and needless to say, I am having the time of my life......!
|
|
