Month: June 2017

I just posted a playlist on SoundCloud titled something like My Guitar Heroes, which included songs I have recorded on SoundCloud and playing live with some awesome guitarists. Made me think about my own process of learning music, especially guitar.

The first musical instrument I can remember beyond the kindergarten rhythm band in Mobile, Alabama was Uncle Gerry’s Gibson guitar that my cousin Linda and I would sneak out of the closet when I went to New York to visit. Uncle Gerry could play Puff the Magic Dragon and Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. Uncle Gerry is close to 80 now, and we still talk music. When his wife, my Aunt Gail, died a number of years ago, we went back to his living room after the funeral and passed that Gibson back and forth and consoled ourselves. There is a picture of Gerry and Gail at Linda’s wedding later in this blog.

About second grade, a new kid Tim moved into the neighborhood, and he didn’t have many friends. His Dad worked for Sohio, and the family had recently moved from somewhere in Africa. His mother, Mrs. Anderson, made my Mom an offer: if I would hang out with Tim, she would give me classical piano lessons. She was a Juilliard graduate. This didn’t last long as I prefered playing outside with other friends, but I did learn to read music. Later on, my next-door neighbor, Mrs. O’brien, taught me how to play melodies and boom-chuck chords on piano. The lessons didn’t go on too long, but I learned a lot. About that time, our parents bought us instruments to start a band (The 4th Dynasty), which practiced in the O’brien’s basement. They hired this guy Terry, who taught the O’briens, Don Berrier, and me how to play mostly surf-rock songs like Wipe Out and Pipeline.

My first guitar was a steel-stringed Harmony with action about 1/2″ above the neck. My folks bought me a Zimgar bass for the 4th Dynasty. Eventually, when I was old enough to mow lawns, Dad cosigned for a Gibson ES-330 and an Ampeg B15 bass amp. Before the Gibson, though, I mostly “borrowed” my sister Donna’s nylon-stringed classical guitar.

Somewhere in that time period, I joined the elementary band program under the tutelage of Frank Giampetro, Mr. G. He assigned me clarinet, which I hated, until high school when he let me play the euphonium, or baritone horn.

I also took guitar lessons on my own from Bill Caudill at the Fairborn Music Box. He taught me to fingerpick and how to play Byrds and Creedence songs. I was also playing from music books in my bedroom every night. Mom and Dad gave me a banjo for my birthday and I discovered Pete Seeger’s banjo book. I had guitar friends like Junior Smith, Randy Setty, and later on, Ed Forrest and Steve Rebbin. My trumpet-genius friend Tom Kirkpatrick showed me a blues scale. I was in several bands along the way, which tended to play only occasionally.

 

 

Steve, Junior, and me on WYSO, our local college public radio station:

From a tape Steve Rebbin’s wife gave me for Christmas after Steve’s passing:

When I  went to Ohio State, I took some lessons from “Frank” at the Columbus Folk Music Center. Frank knew Norman Blake and a bunch of fiddle tunes on guitar. Here is one of our lessons. Learning this acoustic picking was hard, but I remember picking up David Grisman’s first album and being exposed to Grisman’s mandolin and Tony Rice on guitar. I traded a real nice Gibson Mastertone banjo for a crappy Gibson mandolin.

I joined a band in Columbus that had a female singer. We played two gigs, one at Agatha’s in Springfield and a block party on Woodruff Avenue in Columbus.

I’ll jump forward to Tampa, where I took about ten jazz guitar lessons from Joe Pollari. Not much took. Here’s a lesson with Joe:

I took a weekend to go over to Ormond Beach where David Grisman was playing a concert and offered a master class on mandolin. I wasn’t much of a mandolin player, but about a half-dozen of us got to jam with him on a stage in a Holiday Inn conference room.

I learned a whole lot about music playing with the Galaxy Dogs in Tampa, Tyrone and the Telenotes in VIrginia, The Fifth Wheel in Athens, The Fourth Dynasty in Enon, and Raven’s Holiday here in Ohio. There were countless jams over the years with Gene, John, Jack, and Mark. Before that there was jamming with Greg Moore, Mike Heffelfinger, Keith and Dave, and Tom Kirkpatrick.

I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better - Galaxy Dogs (written by Gene Clark)

Mostly, I am self-taught, so I should have spent more time with good teachers, but the journey continues. Hope my fingers hold out as I age!