I started playing the guitar when I was about 15 years old but I've owned a guitar since I was about six. As a young child I would pretend to play but never really had a clue about what I was doing. It wasn't until I got a bit older that I really took interest in the instrument. When I was eleven I used to sit and watch my uncle play the guitar. He was and still is one of the best guitarists I have met in my life. It seemed no matter what song I could think of he was able to play. I would quiz him all the time, "do you know this song?" or "Do you know that song?" and he'd always know at least some of it if not the entire thing.

My uncle taught me to tune the guitar and explained in a way that was very easy to understand, exactly what to listen for. I think it took less than fifteen minutes and I've been able to tune a guitar ever since. My uncle taught me some of my first chords and my first riff, a simple blues riff. Unfortunately this wasn't enough to keep my interest for very long. Sad to say, but I put the guitar down for another 4 years. At the time video games and television were more important.

Anyway, fast forward a few years. Music is quickly becoming an important aspect of my life. Well, that and the video games. Ahh, how I loved the video games. Like I was saying though, music was becoming very important to me. Yeah, I was a teenager now. All full of angst and whatnot. I was at a time in my life when being in a band seemed like the coolest thing in the world. Instead of picking up the guitar though, I wanted to play the bass.

I ended up getting a left handed Ibanez bass guitar and began learning a lot of the basics. Did I forget to mention that I'm left handed? I'm sure I forgot, well now you know. Regardless, it was around the same time my cousin got his first drum set. We used to jam all the time! We would start from anywhere between eight in the morning and nine at night. This went on for a few years. It was amazing how good we got so quickly. After I got my Tascam 414 MK2 4 Input Cassette 4 Track Recorder we started putting together our own material.

This was about the same time the guitar started to come back into the picture for me. You see, at the time we still hadn't brought in a guitar player. So out of necessity I learned a few basic power chord shapes and started putting down the guitar tracks to our songs. It wasn't long that I developed a preference to the guitar and decided that I would focus more of my musical development on the guitar. The only problem was that the guitar that I had just didn't cut it. I decide it was time to pick up a new guitar. I don't know if you've ever tried to purchase a guitar before, it's not easy, I can tell you that much. Couple that with being left handed and you might find yourself settling for something less than you had originally intended. Luckily I was able to find a Fender Stratocaster used in my price range.

After a couple of years and since becoming a bit more familiar with the instrument. I decided to replace the single coil pickup with a Seymour Duncan SH12 Screamin Demon Pickup (probably the best decision I ever made). This pick up made the guitar sound better in every way. It also helped me to develop my own sound. I had since started making more friends, most of which were musicians as well. Actually, it wasn't long afterward that a friend of mine went out and bought the same pickup after hearing mine. I play metal and hard rock, but this pickup can handle everything from clean tones and bluesy tones, to crunchy and insane killer bees sound.

A good friend of ours who had been performing vocals for us had decided to start learning the bass after I put it down to focus more on the guitar. Probably one of the greatest metal screamers I have ever had the pleasure of working with. He wouldn't sing through anything but his Shure SM58LC Shure SM58 Vocal Microphone. Not only was he an excellent vocalist but he had a great talent for song arrangement and writing lyrics. I used to write a lot of riffs but he could listen to them and put them into the bigger picture. It was amazing because we'd sit down and in no time have a new song written. They weren't always the greatest songs but they were always somewhat catchy and everybody would be excited.

We had a lot of great times playing as a band. We would spend countless hours playing. Playing for family and friends. Playing for strangers, and anybody else that would listen. It is indescribable the feeling you get when you see people enjoying your music. Seeing people move to the rhythm that you create. If you don't play a musical instrument I sincerely recommend that you pick one up today.

Stay tuned for more "Memoirs of a Lefty" in the not so distant future.

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