My First Guitar
My fascination with playing music began the moment I first held my brother David’s beautiful marble-coloured Bellini guitar. I was immediately hooked.
My parents encouraged me to learn an instrument and would have preferred that I play the piano, but I was determined to play guitar. They bought me a
rose-coloured, entry-level Bellini guitar and arranged for me to take lessons with Mike Barker, a local guitar teacher.
Mike taught me the basics of music theory, chords and simple songs such as Little Brown Jug and Rambling Boy. But my musical interests were already heading in a different direction. I wanted to play the music I was hearing on the radio — The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and the other great bands of the era.
I spent many of my pre-teen years standing in front of a mirror with my guitar, miming along to records and imagining myself on stage. Gradually, by listening carefully and experimenting, I began working out the chords to the songs I loved.
Of course, the next challenge was figuring out how to amplify the guitar. Proper guitar amplifiers were well beyond my reach, so I improvised. In those days, almost every home had a radiogram — a large piece of furniture containing a radio, turntable and speakers.
Somehow, I discovered that by cutting the plug from a small microphone and connecting its wires to the turntable input, I could amplify the microphone through the radiogram. I placed the microphone inside the sound hole of my guitar and suddenly I had volume. It was primitive, but to me it was an amplifier!
Then, at the age of 13, came the moment that changed everything. While watching the band performing at my Bar Mitzvah party, I found myself fascinated by the bass player.
That was when I knew: I wanted to play bass guitar!
