For as long as I can remember, music has been an essential part of my life. I clearly remember bugging my mom to buy me Kiss Alive II—I was 9. The next big album for me was Get the Knack—I was 11. After that came Pyromania at 15. From Pyromania on, I was a die-hard 80s metalhead. Motley Crue was my go-to band, and I littered my bedroom with pictures I cut out of Circus and Hit Parader magazines. I even had a Shout at the Devil patch sewn onto my Levi’s jacket—and yes, I had a mullet!
As a teenager, music became the defining element of my life. If I wasn’t listening to music, I was thinking about it, going to concerts, and talking about whatever band, album, or song felt most alive to me at the time. I dreamed about being in a band. I tried several instruments—drums, guitar, bass, even singing—but I was an undisciplined teen, and my attempts never lasted more than a few days. That changed in 1989, when I heard the opening riff of “High Wire” by Badlands. That day I bought a guitar, an amp, and the current issue of Guitar for the Practicing Musician (which featured Badlands guitarist Jake E. Lee and a transcription of “ High Wire”).
The back of that magazine had an ad for Metal Method guitar lessons. I clearly remember calling the number in the ad from a payphone in the Marine barracks at Quantico, VA, speaking to Doug Marks (Metal Method creator and guitar instructor), and ordering the entire six-VHS lesson series. I locked myself in my barracks room at every available moment, learning all I could from those tapes.
Learning guitar solidified my bond with music, making it inseparable from who I was then and who I am today. I’ve been fortunate to share my passion with others as a guitar teacher, a father (my son loves music and plays guitar), and with my significant other, who shares my love for music and has helped expand my very narrow, questionable taste in obscure rock and metal bands (I still listen to W.A.S.P.). This is who I am. Now I need to figure out how I share this on Substack.
I don’t know what sharing will look like. Right now, finishing three songs I started writing this year is one potential direction, and revamping my approach to guitar playing is the other. The songs need some glue to hold the pieces together. I have the sections. I have the lyrics. I just need to stitch them together. I tend to write what I think are good demos, but I need to learn to turn them into great songs.
My guitar playing needs to evolve. I need to push myself to use different chord forms, progressions, and guitar tones. I want to speak more clearly with my guitar playing—connect with listeners and convey my emotions. It’s time to apply what I learned in Metal Method volume six and Metal Theory.
I hope working on my songwriting and guitar playing will give me something meaningful to share. The other part of the equation is connection. I need connection. I need to share—to both inspire and be inspired.