As a 4 year old, I strained to form chords on my father's old guitar. I wanted to make those same noises that he made on it! The action on it was pretty high and the guitar was extremely difficult to play, but I managed to learn a chord or two on it... When I was 6 or 7, I started playing the piano, took some lessons, but didn't pick up the guitar again until I was 10...Then at 12, I started taking guitar lessons from an older kid who lived next door to us, and later ended up taking two years of guitar with Larry Hoffman, a brilliant jazz guitar player who taught theory, showed me the chord voicings going up the neck of the guitar, scales, and basic progressions. I started playing in bands with other kids at about this time... When I was nineteen, I joined local band Reptile House and was their second guitar player for about a year! Sometime after that, I started with classical piano for two years at Peabody Conservatory from Richard Fields, and Ephraim Laor; I learned pieces by Bach, Chopin, Scriabin and Erik Satie. Over the years, I have played and recorded guitar (and sometimes keyboard) with several Baltimore singer / songwriters including: Reptile House, Flo (w/ Landis McCord), Felicia Carter, Melissa Sharlat, Andreas Spiliadis, Antony West and Don McIntosh. I have been doing a lot of teaching in recent years, and have over 10 years of teaching experience.