I started playing the trumpet when I was 8 years old. When in middle school I was marching in the high school band. Our band won a number of NY State marching championships.

When I was a sophomore our symphonic band needed French horn players so I changed from trumpet to French horn. A year later I was first chair French horn in the symphonic band and first chair trumpet in the marching band.

When I was 14 I started playing guitar.

After high school I was in a rock and R&B band playing guitar and trumpet but severe asthma forced me to quit both trumpet and gigging. But a couple of years later I got an offer to play in a wedding band because at the time I was one of the few guitarist around here that could improvise, play rock and read music. The places wedding bands play are better than the bar scene so along with my asthma meds all was good. Thus I stayed with the wedding band scene for a long time, fronting my own group for years.

About 15 years ago I got full lung capacity back and a few years later I bought my wind controller. I also started playing bass around the same time and I have been teaching guitar since about 1969 and bass since about 2010.

I get most of my exercise these days from shaking my head in disbelief.


64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware