A life long obsession

Benson and Me :)

My first exposure to the guitar was hearing my dad play when I was a little kid. He played classical guitar and despite what he’d tell you he was quite good at it. He used to play for us when we were falling asleep in our beds, and my favorite song was “Afro Cuban lullaby”. I don’t think he realized at the time how much I loved hearing him play and how deeply that song affected me. Part of it was having that one on one time with my dad, but also it was my earliest memory of hearing a song and being completely absorbed in the experience. I suppose that was the beginning of my life long obsession with music and the guitar.
I didn’t start learning until I was 14. I had always been interested and on occasion fiddled around with my dads guitar, but it wasn’t until after my older brother started learning that I really got hooked. I remember the exact moment when it happened. I was standing in the doorway of his bedroom, watching him strum his old Sigma acoustic, when I was completely overcome with a desire to play. I remember thinking, if I could just sit and strum a guitar like that, nothing would make me happier. I soon started taking lessons from an older kid on my street and on my 15th birthday my parents helped me buy my first acoustic guitar. It was an Aria G420. A copy of a Gallagher made in Japan sometime in the mid 70s. I loved that guitar and loved learning to play. Even when I was just started out and could hardly even finger a basic chord I loved every minute of it. Now 25 years later I’m still just an average player. I’m not in a band and I almost never play outside of my house. I’m just a dorky dad who likes to rock out in his bedroom, and that feeling I had when I was 14 has still never left me. I’m just as obsessed with the guitar as I ever was, and sometimes when I’m not too exhausted at night I play Afro Cuban Lullaby for my own little kiddos. I hope it affects them the way it did me.