I was eight years old listening to the old tube radio next to my bed one evening when I heard this incredibly bright, energetic and fresh sound bursting from that six inch speaker that stopped my thoughts dead in their tracks. Who is that?! I remember exclaiming to myself as I listened to the Beatles "I Want to Hold Your Hand" for the first time. It was over in two and a half electrifying minutes, so I turned the dial and found it on another station, and then another. After that night, I was hooked for life on the joy one can experience through music.
My older brother Jeff had been playing guitar for a year or two and was really into the Hootenanny folk music that was popular then. I wanted a guitar but my parents said I had to prove that I was really interested so they gave me a ukulele for my eighth birthday. I learned some simple songs from books and it wasn't long before I took it over to a friend's house, taped a black toggle switch to the body to make it look like an electric guitar, and with my friend on snare drum, we would play along with the "Introducing the Beatles" Lp on Veejay Records. I stuck with that ukulele and on my 9th birthday, my parents came through with my first guitar, a used Harmony Sovereign folk guitar. Jeff taught me my first chords and a folk song called Sail Away by the Kingston Trio. A year later, I used paper route money to buy a used Harmony Rocket electric guitar and a no-name amplifier and actually spent considerable time in garages, jamming and learning licks and tunes with friends.
Besides the Beatles, the Stones, and the rest of the British Invasion bands, over time my ears kept seeking new and visceral sounds. I starting listening to Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Blues Project, Cream, anything with good guitar lead, and emulating whatever I could. I didn't find it easy, but I had a dogged fascination and interest that kept me hacking away. How did they do it, how did he play that lick? It was the mystery of it all that fascinated me, and the first few times the light went on and I figured something out, and my fingers actually did what I commanded them to do, it was extremely satisfying.
I came to love this mysterious world where sound and expression could wash over me and transport me to a new reality. And once I arrived, I usually tried to play along.
When I was 11, my parents signed me up to take a small jazz ensemble workshop with Chuck Mangione (he taught at the local Eastman School of Music). The other kids were quite a bit older than me but I passed the audition because I could play a blues progression with 9th chords, (although I didn't know that's what they were called!) Back then, by the way, Chuck had short hair and wore a suit. Through that class, I got my first up-close exposure to jazz and picked up some things by osmosis but my ears weren't quite ready for that level of sophistication.
At my own speed, as I managed to understand one style, I needed more mystery to feed my habit. I had already graduated from folk and moved on to blues, electric blues and psychedelic rock. I was listening to the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Derek and the Dominos, early Frank Zappa, Jean Luc Ponty, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies, and later, The Grateful Dead and the harmonized leads and rugged blues of early Allman Brothers. Walter Carlos' Lp, "Switched-On Bach" became my first introduction to classical music and the amazing world of J.S. Bach.
By the time I was 15, my ears were beginning to mature. I was playing chord progressions that were more interesting than my barre chord jamming friends. My parents signed me up for my first real guitar lessons with Eastman student Jim Scott. Over the next six months, Jim introduced me to jazz chords and tunes like The Girl From Ipanema. (Jim later went on to spend many years with the Paul Winter Consort.) My love for harmonic mystery continued and I eventually found a pathway to jazz through the early jazz-rock fusion of Larry Coryell, John McLaughlin, Miles Davis and Chick Corea. It did not take long before I was seeking out straight-ahead jazz guitar masters like Kenny Burrell, George Benson, Wes Montgomery and Pat Martino.
Studies with many great teacher/players came next, at New England Conservatory, Berklee College, Eastman School, gigs of all kinds, and an 11 year association with the world beat band Wildest Dreams where I discovered truly mystifying African rhythms and the amazing guitar artistry of African players like Diblo Dibala.
Ever since I was 15 and realized I had acquired some information about playing guitar that might be useful to others I have been teaching. There is nothing more satisfying for me than helping others explore the mystery of music and guitar and helping them find that light switch.
| Home | Biography | Influences/Approach | Why Study with Paul | Lessons | Music Samples | Testamonials | Cool Stuff | Bookings |
