My story - Music
Going back as far as I can remember, my mom was changing my diaper. No that's too far back. When I was old enough to wear regular underwear, I remember listening to music and loving it, but having no idea what I was hearing clearly. I couldn't recognize individual words or phrases, or each instrument like the drums, bass, guitar, keyboards. it all just came at me like MUSIC. It was beautiful and amazing. In fact, that's the purest time I ever enjoyed music.
When I was maybe 3 or 4 years old, I had a tiny toy piano keyboard thing. In fact, I still have it! Well, that was my first experience creating music! It was a distinctfully different experience from my other toys. Somehow, I knew this kind of playing would be delved into on a deeper level later on in life.
At some point, my mom recognized my interest in the piano, and suggested I take lessons. So I took them for awhile. I was being trained out of book. The lessons were OK. Then I was taking lessons from this other guy, and found a little keyboard at a garage sale. I practiced for a long time on that thing. It was small enough that I could bring it in the car with me on the way to lessons, and practice on the way there. One day, my teacher was smoking a cigarette outside while we pulled in. He noticed the keyboard on my lap and said "You practice on that thing?! Holy smokes! It's amazing how far you came on that, but you need a REAL piano! haha" I felt honored that I could squeeze out every drop what I could get out of what I had, and be recognized for that. Eventually I did get my first 88-key electric piano with weighted keys.
Not to make a long story out of it, I stopped taking piano and started up again, and stopped again, and then one day in about 7th grade I was over my friend Sam's house. He had a guitar and small amp, and had me playing Black Sabbath's Iron Man in no time. I was hooked. I had always played air guitar from an early age, fantasized being able to play.
So that got me into guitar. Took lessons for awhile, and I gotta give a shoutout to my teacher Aaron Roberts who layed a strong foundation in me for guitar.
Then I joined the first ever School of Rock in Massachusetts. Yeah that's where I'm from. This is when things started to take off. Since I was part of the first group of students there, it was a really exciting time for everyone involved. I quickly stood out there as a talented musician, so I joined the house band and got to play a lot of shows around the New England area.
During this time, I was asked to be in a band. I very reluctantly joined. Then out of nowhere, Paul Green, the owner of the School of Rock franchise, payed a visit to our school. We got to jam together, and man this guy was off his rocker. But it was cool, I guess. Anyways, somehow our GM had the balls to recommend me and one other student to get on the Allstars that summer. If you don't know, the Allstars are the best students in the country, brought together to do tours and open for big name acts. Well, he actually agreed to let me on!
When I was maybe 3 or 4 years old, I had a tiny toy piano keyboard thing. In fact, I still have it! Well, that was my first experience creating music! It was a distinctfully different experience from my other toys. Somehow, I knew this kind of playing would be delved into on a deeper level later on in life.
At some point, my mom recognized my interest in the piano, and suggested I take lessons. So I took them for awhile. I was being trained out of book. The lessons were OK. Then I was taking lessons from this other guy, and found a little keyboard at a garage sale. I practiced for a long time on that thing. It was small enough that I could bring it in the car with me on the way to lessons, and practice on the way there. One day, my teacher was smoking a cigarette outside while we pulled in. He noticed the keyboard on my lap and said "You practice on that thing?! Holy smokes! It's amazing how far you came on that, but you need a REAL piano! haha" I felt honored that I could squeeze out every drop what I could get out of what I had, and be recognized for that. Eventually I did get my first 88-key electric piano with weighted keys.
Not to make a long story out of it, I stopped taking piano and started up again, and stopped again, and then one day in about 7th grade I was over my friend Sam's house. He had a guitar and small amp, and had me playing Black Sabbath's Iron Man in no time. I was hooked. I had always played air guitar from an early age, fantasized being able to play.
So that got me into guitar. Took lessons for awhile, and I gotta give a shoutout to my teacher Aaron Roberts who layed a strong foundation in me for guitar.
Then I joined the first ever School of Rock in Massachusetts. Yeah that's where I'm from. This is when things started to take off. Since I was part of the first group of students there, it was a really exciting time for everyone involved. I quickly stood out there as a talented musician, so I joined the house band and got to play a lot of shows around the New England area.
During this time, I was asked to be in a band. I very reluctantly joined. Then out of nowhere, Paul Green, the owner of the School of Rock franchise, payed a visit to our school. We got to jam together, and man this guy was off his rocker. But it was cool, I guess. Anyways, somehow our GM had the balls to recommend me and one other student to get on the Allstars that summer. If you don't know, the Allstars are the best students in the country, brought together to do tours and open for big name acts. Well, he actually agreed to let me on!
Location: Festival Pier at Penn's Landing. Details
In that experience, I got to tour the midwest of America, and at the annual School of Rock festival outdoors at the pier in Philly, I opened up for 2 big acts the Dropkick Murphies and Devo - on a BIG EFFING STAGE. IT WAS INCREDIBLE.
One day, I see a giant banner over a store-front in my hometown - "School of Rock". I instantly knew I would be working there, and that this place would a great fit for me. And it was. For the past several years, I have enjoyed being one of the founding instructors of this school. We are enjoying a lot of success there.
And now we're getting close to the present. The time I spend teaching and being around music has tremendously increased my skills. If you watch my older Youtube videos compared to my latest ones, you can tell I took up several notches. I'm really proud of that. Plus, now that I'm older and wiser, I feel it's truly time to dedicate myself to what I love and building a lifestyle and career out of it. So that's where this website comes in. This is my statement, that shows how much dedication and love I have for music.
If you like what I do, please show your support. Share it with friends, buy something you like in my shop. I play the music and build the content, and it's a team experience. We are on the same team, and in this together!
My Story - Computers
I remember there was a computer in my parents' bedroom. That thing was intimidating. Like, I knew it would let me play games somehow, but the process of making the game happen was crazy. My mom had to put this disk in, and then type commands into the DOS prompt. That part was like WTF. And then I got to play my games.
Then there these game systems that were much simpler. You would just put the game in, press power, and then you could play! Those games were so much fun. And I was figuring what the hell those games were all about from a super young age of 2 years old. There's old family home videos of it. It's hilarious.
At some point, I recall playing the Super Nintendo with my friend or my brother, and thinking to myself "Wait, how is all this happening right now? How is this thing able to make all these pictures on the screen, and how am I able to press these buttons and have it do things?! Well I'm going to learn how all this works some day!" And that's how I felt about that.
Back in that time, book stores were a very popular place to stop by when you were out. So my mom and I would frequently stop at Border's Book Store, and I would hone in on the Computer section. I never really knew what I wanted to find, but I was fascinated and hoped I would find some cool book that would make my dreams of making computers do cool shit a reality.
I would check out books on everything that sounded cool or interesting. Some would keep my interest and some wouldn't. One book that captivated me was called "Just for Fun." It's a story of the creator of the Linux operating system - Linus Torvalds. And he basically goes on to say everything started in his bedroom at home, and we just having fun doing stuff on his computer. I felt like that too, and it was nice to read a story from someone who had "made it" out there who had done the same thing, especially at such a young age. I imagine I was around 10 or 12 when I read this.
At some point, I recall playing the Super Nintendo with my friend or my brother, and thinking to myself "Wait, how is all this happening right now? How is this thing able to make all these pictures on the screen, and how am I able to press these buttons and have it do things?! Well I'm going to learn how all this works some day!" And that's how I felt about that.
Back in that time, book stores were a very popular place to stop by when you were out. So my mom and I would frequently stop at Border's Book Store, and I would hone in on the Computer section. I never really knew what I wanted to find, but I was fascinated and hoped I would find some cool book that would make my dreams of making computers do cool shit a reality.
I would check out books on everything that sounded cool or interesting. Some would keep my interest and some wouldn't. One book that captivated me was called "Just for Fun." It's a story of the creator of the Linux operating system - Linus Torvalds. And he basically goes on to say everything started in his bedroom at home, and we just having fun doing stuff on his computer. I felt like that too, and it was nice to read a story from someone who had "made it" out there who had done the same thing, especially at such a young age. I imagine I was around 10 or 12 when I read this.