My Story
I may not be a rock star... Yet!
But, I have a passion to show you how to be.
I have always and will always be a lover of music. I think I may love showing
people how to connect to their inner musician even more. That's why I chose this path in life.
I won't bore you with all the details of how I've played the metal factory in Florida, or the Whiskey
a Go Go in LA, or even how I stole all my sisters piano chops by secretly watching her practice.
But I will share a few of my inspirations and how I know what I have to show you here will help you!
A quick backstory about my influences. It all started with Eddie VanHalen. He was a god among
gods to me. Still is in some ways, but that all changed on one cold and stormy night..
Ok, maybe it was just a normal night? I was at a friends house when he handed me this tape
with a flaming guitar and the strange name ying-wee. Or so I thought. I can remember
calling my dad on the phone and saying to him, you have to hear this new guitarist Ingwee!
He laughed, and said you mean Yngwie? It's Swedish he said.
Regardless, my life was changed forever. The pure essence of awesomeness that was captured in audio form for me to indulge while daydreaming about achieving his level of musicality and technique.
Little did I know, that wasn't achievable overnight. Kids and their unrealistic expectations.
I wanted it now, not tomorrow, and definitely not ten years from now.
So, I played my guitar every free second I had. Sometimes up to 10 or maybe 12 hours a day.
Using only my ear and occasionally some books I would get as gifts from family.
Consequently, by age 16 or so I was able to play most of my guitar heroes music that I attempted
close enough to fool my friends. My dad however, knew better and always kept my feet on the ground which was a good thing. Till this day, I always strive to be a real player because of it.
Moving forward about 5 years.. I had the chops of my gods!
Yet music took a turn, and not in my direction. As I tried to get gigs in Florida, nobody seemed to care that I could play blazing musical solos. They were all drop D tuning, power chords, and screaming cookie monster vocals with no guitar solos.
Since I wasn't gigging 5 nights a week with my arsenal of shreddery, I decided to put it to some good use and start studying music theory. I took some private lessons from an understudy of Vincent Bredice. This was a great thing for me. It put road maps to all the trails I had been walking, filling in all the terminology gaps so I could understand the theory behind what I have been playing for years.
I could always hear the intervals and understood very complex music but I didn't know what these things were called. I spent the next few years studying from Musicians Institute and Berklee Press books as well as any other method books I could get my hands on to confirm my understanding.
Luckily for me, I was already in the process of trying to make sense of it consequently developing what I thought was my own theory only to realize later, that I was simply discovering another approach to the same theory that already existed. An easier much more digestible approach. Instead of 12 keys to memorize, there was only one key to memorize that started in 12 different places. Instead of all the sharp and flat notes that existed in every chord I used 5 chord forms to make them all.
I was able to simplify the complex classical understanding into a much more laymen approach that seemed to be instantly applicable. And from that my method was born.
The Auer Method
Which I continue to develop after years of teaching refining and perfecting
my method to get the most with.
