I never took lessons. Started late at 17 (after being on LSD in a house full of instruments made me realize I was supposed to be a musician). I played clarinet in 3rd & 4th grades and had 1st chair a few times. Piano lessons for less than a year around age 12. But none of it kept my interest.
I started on bass soon before graduation, then got a guitar about a year later. I learned to play by getting tabs of songs I know and figuring them out. I was recording original music within the first year, thru the 1/8" mic input on an Aiwa stereo to tape. Then I'd move the tape to the play deck and put another blank tape in and dub the tape while playing another instrument/track thru the mic input. I'd get up to 6 tracks like this. Also got a keyboard and enrolled in MIDI and home recording classes at community college.
Now 43, been playing for 26 years, but there was a 9 year period where I didn't have a guitar/bass because I lost everything in 2012 when I became homeless due to permanent disability. 3 years homeless but 6 more years indoors before I was able to get a guitar/bass again (on SSDI, very low income).
But since 2021 I've put together a decent home studio again and have been working on new music every day since. I don't have the technical skill you'd expect from someone that's played for 26 years, but I never cared to play the fast solos and other typical stuff you hear so many people regurgitating. There are many very skilled yet boring guitarists.
My strength is in composition, creating and arranging original songs. I can play guitar, bass, synths, and synth and hand drums well enough to record the music I write, but I am far from being a master of any of the instruments I play.
I can confidently say that my music is unique, authentic, and innovative. If there is other music that sounds like mine, I haven't heard it. I use a lot of odd time signatures, and after 23 years since I first discovered them, 5/4, 9/4, 7/8, 11/4, etc are as natural to me as 4/4.
DECEMBERmusic.org
