by NoteBoat » November 19th, 2003, 7:01 pm
I'm Tom, 44, from the Chicago area. I've been a musician pretty much all my life, starting out as a wee lad playing percussion (which I later got to study at DePaul), and I still dabble at that, sitting in as tympanist with a local orchestra from time to time.
I got my first guitar in a rather roundabout way... my father wanted to play, and my mother gave him one for Christmas. He strummed it a couple times, and put it in the closet. A year or two later, my younger sister wanted to play, so Dad gave it to her for Christmas... she strummed it and put it in the closet.
When I was about 16 I went to a party where a guitarist was performing. I watched his hands and thought "I could do that". Swiped Sis' guitar that night, promptly busted a string. Next morning I bought new strings and a Mel Bay book, and I was off and running.
Three years later I was in college studying percussion, but playing several hours of guitar a day, and teaching percussion at a local music store. A new shipment of guitars had arrived, and I was checking one out... the owner of the shop, who taught guitar, promptly asked me to take on some of his students, and I was on my way. The next year I opened my own shop, and the rest is pretty much history.
Over the last 25 years I've had the chance to sample a whole bunch of areas in music, performing, teaching, writing, producing, even composing a film score for a real low budget production some years back. It's still just as much fun as it ever was, and my 13 year old seems to be following in my footsteps -- a percussionist for five years, now playing some bass and guitar and fronting his own trio.
Tom
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
.
