I didn’t pick up a musical instrument until I was seventeen. That’s not to say I didn’t love music—I absolutely did! But in high school, when I first attempted to play guitar, I tried to do it left-handed, only to be told by my music teacher that it wasn’t allowed. Playing right-handed felt completely unnatural to me, so I gave up and moved on to other electives.
Leaving school early due to bullying, I found myself taking on labouring jobs—cutting firewood, picking cherries, and harvesting seasonal fruits in the small village where I lived. Music wasn’t really on my radar until my younger brother started learning guitar at school. That reignited my interest, and with the money I’d saved from cherry picking, I bought myself a cheap Valencia nylon-string acoustic guitar from a nearby music shop. I also picked up a small chord book from the nearest town’s newsagent and began teaching myself to play—starting with the simplest chord diagrams I could find!
Growing up as a teenager in a small country town during the 80’s, there weren’t any other musicians around to learn from, so I relied on my chord book and a lot of trial and error. I would play cassette tapes, pause them, and try to work out the chords by ear. Unfortunately, constantly rewinding and playing the tapes took a toll on them—they stretched and wore out quickly! I had no concept of music theory, but that didn’t stop me from listening to AC/DC tracks like Highway to Hell and TNT, desperately trying to decode the magic behind their sound.
I practiced for hours every day, and before long, I could play a handful of songs. About a year later, my brother joined a school band and asked if I wanted to play guitar with them. At one of the first rehearsals, their singer unexpectedly pulled out, leaving the teacher scrambling to find a replacement. She called me over to the piano and asked me to sing Old Time Rock & Roll. I screeched my way through a couple of lines, and to my surprise, she simply said, “You’ll do.”
Six weeks later, we performed at a school concert, playing about six songs in front of a hall full of students. We didn’t sound great (to put it kindly), but standing on that stage, feeling the energy of a live audience, I knew—this is what I wanted to do. That moment set me on the path to becoming a professional musician, and I’ve never looked back.
How did YOU get started in music?