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I started playing the Piano when I was around 8 years old, learning songs from Classical, Ragtime, Jazz and Rock and Popular music genres. I liked playing the piano and practiced enough to excel at it. The piano has always been something that I relied on as a songwriter. Then I started playing the guitar and I realized what it meant to love music. I aspired to be just like Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. One of my first solos was Stairway to Heaven which I can still play to this day.

I remember arguing with some of my friends at school over who was better Eddie Van Halen or Jimmy Page. I was for my idol Jimmy Page of course. I went to my guitar teacher and told him with outrage about the Page vs. Van Halen controversy. He said, "Dude Van Halen is waaaaaay better than Jimmy Page." ( let me just say that I am not putting down Jimmy Page, I realize that Eddie was standing on his shoulders in a lot of ways ) I was a little miffed but hey I was open to it, so he taught me "Eruption" and I could play it a couple weeks later. The guys who used to work in the store where I took lessons used to give him a hard time because I could play it better than he could, Oops, sorry dude! ( I hate to brag). Well eventually my teenage paycheck fell on hard times and I really couldn't afford my lessons anymore (my parents attempt to teach me about money).

So the self teaching began. I had an old reel to reel tape recorder (still have it) that would let me slow down solos to half speed and quarter speed. Really anything I liked or wanted to play was fair game. Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Randy Rhoades, Jake E. Lee, Brad Gillis, Jeff Watson, Steve Morse were all slowed down to half speed and learned. That continued for a couple years and I think I did a pretty good job of teaching myself. I could play Eruption and some other landmark guitar solos of the day but I wanted to take it a step further and get into Berklee College of Music. So I went to the local Berklee Grad guitar teacher and started learning some music theory, scales, Jazz standards and improv techniques.

After 2-3 years of that I was ready for Berklee. He wrote me a recommendation and I was in. You may know this, but in the 80s, you had to have massive chops to last at Berklee, so I did what every self respecting guitar player did at that time.........practice 8,10 and sometimes 12 hours a day. At this point Steve Vai was really my favorite guitar player. There was a bootleg Steve Vai realbook floating around so I got a copy of it and learned all his great solos. Crossroads Suite, For the Love Of God, Animals, Erotic Nightmares, I also got into some Yngwie, Paul Gilbert, and Frank Gambale.

Berklee was a great time for me. All music, all the time. Just the way it should be. At the time I played with some rock and metal bands while learning my Jazz theory, Classical Theory, sight reading and songwriting and composition classes.

After that, I got into teaching, got my master's degree from WestConn and gigged around, doing several theater gigs including, The Wiz, Pearlie and Dreamgirls; I played with Atlantic recording artist Ragan Whiteside on some local gigs around the NYC area-she won the Capitol Jazz Challenge and played for 40,000 people shortly after.

I am currently a rock/fusion guitarist and songwriter writing and recording in my home studio. I write in a variety of styles ranging from Goth Metal, to Bubble Gum Pop, to Country, to Latin Jazz fusion to Instrumental Rock.

As far as performing goes, I am now playing with Billy and the Barfights, doubling on guitar and keys, so check out some of my pre-production demos and send me an email if you think you need a keyboardist/guitarist to enhance your band.

I am also a member of the Original Rock Band FREERIDER. We have done recent shows as part of the Ernie Ball Moto Music Madness Tour, through Connecticut and Maine. We have received the honor of Finalist in the 16th Annual BILLBOARD SONG CONTEST, and have been named Track of the Day on GarageBand.com.

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