From my earliest memories and beyond music has always been an important part of my life. My mom told me that when they took me to dances when I was a baby I would not go to sleep until the last note was played. Growing up the piano and record player was my favorite ways to explore music at home. I took a couple of piano lessons and spent a year and a half in band playing trumpet but was discouraged by a grumpy instructor the second year and quit. I learned to play the ukulele when I was ten from an older lady who taught me to play and sing songs and then began to teach myself to play guitar when I was 12.

I began to learn to play guitar in 1966 and took a couple of lessons but the instructors never interested me so I began to learn on my own from chord symbols on sheet music and by playing with other guitar players and trading riffs. I had always used my ear to pick out music and that became the main way I learned to play songs. I knew music fundamentals from band and a theory class I took at the University of Nebraska in 1978 but didn’t begin to apply it until I began to teach. I played in several bands around Fremont from 1979 to 1995 but didn’t really know what I was actually doing. I knew how the music sounded and how to memorize and follow the patterns of the songs we played.

I began to teach guitar in 1985 when a lady approached me playing guitar in a park one afternoon and asked me to teach her son. As I began to teach I began to realize that learning to read music and music fundamentals helps to understand how rhytym, harmony and melody works together to make music. Learning to read music actually has helped me to be able to learn and teach music better.

I graduated with honors from UNO December 17th, with a Bachelors of General study with a major concentration in music and secondary concentrations in video and audio. I have taught guitar full time in Omaha at Russo’s Music for the last thirteen years and teach Audio classes part time at Metropolitan Community College.