Question and Answer

did you ever get any guitar-lessons/musical-education and if yes, how important was it for your musical development, i.e. could you have done without? thanks, Andrzej

hi andrzej,

the main teachers that i had when i was a kid were my older brother mike, and a great band director in our public school system - mr. keith house. at that time, i wasn't playing guitar though, i was playing trumpet, and later, french horn. there was a teacher at our local music store in lee's summit named jack randall, and he was good, but i wasn't making enough money from my paper route (i am not making this up) to pay for lessons and get the guitar that i wanted. but, pretty quickly, i was able to be around a bunch of older kansas city based musicians who kind of took me under their wing, and i learned most of what i learned from playing with them and studying from books off the bandstand. i also studied harmony with a great piano player in kansas city named john elliot - and a piano player who live down the street from us named johh mckee taught me jazz harmony and thelonius monk compositions (his speciality). all the musicians that i have ever played with have been the best teachers i have ever had. the most important thing is to be around musicians that are better than you are as much as possible.

best from pat