My First Musing…

Music has been my passion for more than 30 years. My initial exposure was listening to FM radio back in Germany in the mid 70s. I spent hours taping songs on music cassette tapes, using a cheap cassette player.

When I was 12 years old, I started taking lessons with a terrific guitar teacher, Peter Notzem. He was instrumental in developing my love for music that continues until this day. Unfortunately, I’ve lost contact to him. Peter, if you are out there and by some crazy coincidence read this, please reach out – I’d love to catch up!

Peter not only introduced me to classical music, but right from the get-go, he also taught me the basics of folk and pop/rock guitar. It was largely because of him that I started paying more and more attention to The Beatles, a band I love to this day. In my late teens, Peter also got me started on how to play the electric bass guitar. He was playing in a great cover band at the time, and every now and then I had a chance to watch them rehearse.

Shortly thereafter, perhaps not surprisingly, I joined a band myself. These guys were older and much more experienced musicians. In retrospect, I find it amazing they accepted a young bass player who essentially still was a beginner! I worked very hard to improve my skills, and music truly became my life next to college. The leader of the band was writing his own songs, and we spent countless hours practicing and refining. We even recorded demos and sent them to a record company. Needless to add we did not become famous, but music had changed my life forever.

A transfer to another university for my graduate studies put an end to my band activity. For various reasons, I never returned to actively playing music, though I’m sometimes getting really itchy – especially when I see live performances! The one thing that hasn’t changed is that I continue to listen to great music and going to great shows.

My taste is pretty eclectic, including 50’s rock & roll, blues, rock in all of its shapes, country, hard rock, pop metal, soul, funk and even disco. My favorite decades of music are the 60s, 70s and 80s. I’m a strong believer in true craftsmanship, i.e., real instruments and real singing – if music has great lyrics, even better! What I generally don’t like is artificial, computer-generated stuff. Sadly, I feel much of today’s music falls into that category, but there continues to be some good stuff out there!

This blog is about my thoughts on artists I admire and their great music. While writing has been an important part of my job in public relations for more than 18 years, this is my first foray into blogging. I’m excited I’ll be writing about my passion, though I’m not quite sure where this journey will lead me.

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