Guitar

Three guitars: acoustic bass, electric and folk

Guitar is my primary instrument.  I began learning to play guitar at age 14.  I studied guitar in a traditional way, with the Mel Bay method books, learning to read music, and classical guitar studies.  I also have fond memories of playing electric guitar in a rock 'n roll band with high school friends ("garage band").

I enjoy listening to a wide variety of musical styles and guitar players; Chet Atkins, Danny Gatton, Ed Gerhardt, Andres Segovia, Christopher Parkening, Liona Boyd, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Brian May, Jimi Page, Richie Blackmore, Mary Flowers, Bonnie Raitt, Keb Mo and Taj Mahal, to name just a few.  As you can see, my most favorite styles of music to listen to and play are fingerstyle guitar (classical guitar / instrumental music), blues music, and classic rock.

Although I've played classical, folk and electric guitars, these days I mainly play acoustic guitar.  My "day job" / career has been in the Information Technology field, so I very much appreciate the "unplugged" nature of the acoustic guitar.  Besides sounding great, acoustic guitars will still work in a power outage!  I also have a Martin Backpacker travel guitar (nylon string), which can be taken almost anywhere and played "off the grid".

My favorite style of guitar playing is "fingerstyle" guitar.  The term "fingerstyle" basically means playing strings with your thumb and fingers, rather than using a pick.  It also means you can play multiple parts simultaneously; melodies and bass lines and inner harmonies.  I especially love fingerstyle guitar because it allows you to expand the instrument, as if it were a piano, or a SATB choir (soprano, alto, tenor, bass).  Sometimes you can play full chords, or can imply chords / harmonies with just two notes at a time (bass and melody).  Bass notes played with the thumb also provide the "rhythm" in conjunction with harmony and melody.  Fingerstyle guitar instrumentals have some similarities to classical guitar pieces, but fingerstyle can also be applied to blues, jazz and popular songs.  In many cases, I work up my own chord/melody arrangements for the fingerstyle pieces that I play.

I also occasionally write songs and parodies, for which I use a guitar accompaniment.  Since I grew up listening to classic rock, I also enjoy playing "unplugged" versions of some of these tunes.

As my time permits, I teach group lessons for both Beginning and Intermediate Guitar.  I teach both guitar and harmonica in the Rutland, VT and central Vermont area.