Part I: So It Begins

Before I delve into the world of Paradigm, I figure I would give a background of my love of music and my personal beginnings as a musician. I will make an effort to keep this short, however, anyone who knows me realizes that at this moment that is a near impossible task.

As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a gangster. Oh, wait, that was Henry Hill's opening in Goodfellas. Try that again...As far back as I could remember I wanted to be a rock star! That's right. Full blown, thousands of people around me cheering my name, ROCK STAR! So, needless to say, I spent a lot of time alone imagining myself as Vince Neil from Motley Crue singing to stadiums full of people. (I still do this with funny, fictional songs, just not as Vince Neil anymore, but in some instances as a rabbi. For real.) If I had to put my finger on it, this is when my love of music and entertaining started.

I didn't actually play any instruments at the time but I knew I wanted to. Fast forward about 5 years to Christmas 1988 when my parents bought me (upon request and, man, was I stoked) an electric guitar. It wasn't quite like the one I play now (or ever) as it had a speaker smack in the middle of the body. I guess my parents figured, "Hey, a guitar AND an amp all in one!" This was their idea of saving money. I don't blame them considering I didn't take it that seriously for another several years and I wound up taking the guitar apart like so many other things back then. Yes, I was made fun of slightly for it but more for the "song" I came up with at the time. It was played on one string and basically went up and down the neck. The melody for the lyrics simply emulated the notes played on the one string. Here are said lyrics:

We're not the kids of yesterday.
We're here to rock today.
So listen to what I say.
Cause we're not the kids of yesterday.

Brilliant, I know. I did show incredible promise, however, not so much to my good friend Steve Napolitano, who ridiculed me for years to come (in a friendly, funny way, of course). It was probably for the best that one of my good friends at the time busted my chops about the song as opposed to gaining some blind confidence and thinking I was good enough to play in, lets say, something like a talent show. That could have been a nightmare of ridicule for a high school student. The only people that don't get made fun of after that are the students who actually were good. Mostly the kids who played piano and violin. Not the kids that play songs like, "We're Not The Kids of Yesterday"(copyright 1988). So there is that.

Skip to the following year. Freshman music class. Ms. Crawford. She really knew how to belt songs out on the piano but she had hairy armpits, hence, to a freshman boy not many musical lessons would be absorbed. I am very thankful for this class because through the sweaty swamp of furry pits I did manage to learn the basic chords: D, C,G, A, the bar chord, parts of Motley Crew's "Danger" and the immortal beginning to Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive". So, thank you Ms. Crawford and I hope I wasn't too mean about your pits. Sorry if I was. Truly.

Let us move on to my senior year in high school, 1993. Variety show, winter. Baring witness to Jimmy Coyne's real electric guitar (no speaker in the center, full sized) plugged into a real amplifier with (drumroll)... a distortion pedal. This seriously blew my fucking mind! No joke, it was one of the coolest things I have ever heard. EVERYTHING sounded awesome with this combination of electronic devices. So, after a demonstration of finger tapping and "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" by Jim, I came to the conclusion that I might be able to play the guitar as well. That didn't really work out at the time either as I was too immersed in "high school life" and trying to hook up with girls that there really wasn't any room for an electric guitar with distortion in my life. Our relationship would have to wait until the following year.

See you in the summer!