When I was six years old, my dad took me to a music store in hopes that I'd
be able to start taking lessons on the violin. The first problem with this
idea was that my arms were too short to reach the first fret. After
about an hour of trying me on several other instruments that were also too
big, the salesman and my dad decided that the cornet was the only instrument
that might work. It was actually too heavy, but I used to hold it up
by bracing my elbows against my chest while I played. I didn't really
want to play an instrument, but my dad persisted in bringing me for
lessons and making sure I practiced for at least an hour every day during
the week. For a six year old, it was pure hell, but sometimes children don't
know what's best for them, and today I can't thank him enough for loving
me enough to stay firm in his commitment.
In my teens, I began playing the guitar. This, mainly because it was a very
popular instrument. In other words, it seemed like the guitar players
were getting all the girls. I learned my first songs, "House of the
Rising Sun" and "Pinball Wizard" from friends and joined my first band after
playing for about a year. For the most part, I played with a few different
bands during this time and picked up tips here and there from other
players. The most memorable event from this time period would be when
I burned a guitar in a battle of the bands (and we only got second place).
At the time, I couldn't understand why all the adult chaperones were so upset
about this.
In my early twenties, I was playing acoustic folk music in some of the coffee
houses that were located on college campuses in the Philadelphia area. Being
somewhat idealistic, I decided that I wasn't "making it" because I didn't
play well enough, so I found a classical guitar teacher in hopes of picking
up my technique. In retrospect, I know that "making it" in the music
business has more to do with connections than ability, but given the fact
that I learned more in the first 6 months studying classical than I had learned
in all the years before, taking the lessons turned out to be a good idea.
The years between 1978 and 1987 are what I call the "dark ages" because,
I spent so much time trying to make a living so I could provide for my young
family that I didn't have time to play at all. In '87, I was
asked to play guitar for a church choir. At first, I declined because
all I had was my classical guitar which is not good for pick style strumming
(that's what they wanted). About 2 weeks later, a man at my job offered me
a guitar that he had picked up in the Philippines. He said it was just collecting
dust in his storage room. It turned out to be a handmade instrument of high
quality.
Playing with the choir gave me a reason to start practicing again and it wasn't
long before I was giving lessons to a few private students. In 1989,
an event took place that changed my life. I was taking accounting classes
at Mohave Community College in hopes of changing careers when an accident
happened that caused the guitar teacher to be incapacitated. The dean
asked me to fill in for him and offered to get me an emergency teaching certificate.
I accepted that position and soon was teaching on all three campuses. It
was through this experience that I realized teaching was what I really wanted
to do. I changed my major to education and in 1995, I finally
graduated from college and went to work teaching at Bennett Elementary School
in Laughlin.
At the end of this past school year (2001/2002), I ran into a friend who told
me about a new guitar class that would be offered at Laughlin M.S/H.S.
Thinking that I was ready for a challenge, I made an appointment with Dr.
Edwards, discussed each other's expectations, and transferred in to
teach an Explorations Guitar class. As things turned out, I found
myself teaching both Explorations and Beginning Guitar. This
first year has been a real learning experience/ adventure, but that's what
it is to be a musician. It's like the "road less traveled, and that
has made all the difference".
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