pos69sum

I've been playing piano since I was six, by the time I was in high school I had become a pretty competent classical player. I quit because it got boring to me and I wanted to pursue my other interests, like laying around on the couch and watching tv. What I really wanted to do was play guitar but I thought it was too late to start and I got busy with college.

I picked up some chords here and there just from hanging around people.  For a long time I just played some crappy rhythm stuff whenever someone had a guitar lying around.   I've been playing since the mid 90's, but I never really progressed much because I never really challenged myself to learn anything new. I decided that it was time to get serious around 2000 or 2001. I was tired of being this huge music fan - constantly reading about bands, collecting music, going to concerts, etc. - but not being able to actually play the kind of music that I enjoyed. I had an old beat up acoustic lying around and started strumming open chords using my fingers. I did this for about a year and my brothers bought me a new acoustic for my birthday.

I got an Epi LP and started taking lessons with this jazzhead named Dale around 2002. Dale's a cool guy and a badass guitarist. He can make your head spin with his knowledge of theory. I started to make rapid progress once I started taking lessons. I was learning about theory, brushing up on my technique, playing classical pieces for the first time (really badly). All of the classic rock songs that previously seemed impossible to me were now relatively easy to play. This was when I started getting obsessed. I started collecting gear and practicing 8 hours a day.

Then I got into graduate school and I hit another wall where guitar had to take a back seat to other things. I had to cut down on my lessons and practicing. To be honest, I'm still in the middle of this really busy time, but I've decided I'm going to make time for playing and trying to improve as much as I can. I'm just at the point where I don't think I suck anymore, but there are a lot of ways in which I'd like to improve as a musician.

So now I try to practice at least a few hours every day, sometimes to the detriment of other things I have going on in my life ;P. I can easily waste an entire day messing around on my acoustic in front of the TV, I get so engrossed. I love coming up with a nice sounding phrase or learning a new piece that I can play for friends. I am currently taking time off from lessons to concentrate on learning how to use this recording equipment that I bought - I'm probably going to post some clips at some point. I'll probably go back to lessons when I feel like I'm not making enough progress on my own.