barrymclark

I started playing guitar by ear when I was about 10 years old then starting to really play often at about 12 to 13. By the time I was 20, I had come as close as I would ever come to 'making it' in music as part of a heavy metal band. Some time after the band's last recording, I felt fairly empty about what I was doing. I couldn't put a finger on it (hey, I was 20; what do you want?) but I just knew I wasn't happy with something musically. At first, I thought it was the band. Then I thought it was the genre of music. It took me another decade to figure out what it was: me. I wasn't growing. At 30, I was playing the same thing I had always played. I hadn't grown an inch musically since I was 16. That set me on a quest, I had to find something that made me want to play my backside off again. I found it in jazz. I had always enjoyed listening to jazz ensembles but had never really ventured into learning any of it. I started learning some swing versions of Stray Cats' songs and I was off to the races.

At 34, I would live up to a decade old promise to myself: I would get some lessons from Sal Gentile.

With the little time I have to invest, it is slow going, but I am growing musically and I have many people on here to thank for it. The encouragement directly and indirectly. The fact that this is a community that supports every musician at every level and not just to a few elitist snobs like you find on so many other sites. This is a place for the weekend warriors as most of us are to the masters such as Vince Lewis, Jason Crowley and Matt Ingeneri.

These days, my buying and collecting has calmed quite a bit. I am now down to a few guitars and a couple of amps.