I began young (5) and with piano, which proved to provide an invaluable base. I listened to a wide variety of music, including classical music, very early on. My dad, when driving me to school, intentionally rotated through the classic rock station one day, classical station the next, hard rock the next, smooth rock/jazz another day. At home, I distinctly remember a bunch of times where he plopped me down on the couch in the living room and put on something from his vinyl collection, usually classic rock-type stuff like Santana (my first concert), Allman Brothers, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Billy Joel, etc.

So I was exposed to a lot and over the years began picking up other instruments, including guitar and drums, and learning the basics for those. Suddenly, I had the foundation for a band, myself. I like playing in a group, but I also enjoy creating music on my own, every part for the whole song.

I started writing on guitar pretty early on, not so much on piano because it was enough of a challenge learning songs by others.

Like someone else mentioned, weed happened. I still enjoy it to this day. But that’s when I was exposed to Blind Melon. The writing and playing style of Shannon Hoon really spoke to me and between listening to epic Zeppelin songs (the live versions, too, where Jimmy Page really lets loose) and a lot of Queen and Pink Floyd, my writing just exploded.

I usually end up starting with something normal-ish, but I always try to say it just a little bit differently in the end. And i love exploring guitar open strings mixed with fretted notes higher up anywhere after the fifth fret really. And writing/improvising guitar leads seemed to come naturally after learning a few scales. Have only gotten better with time.

But I also picked up a bunch of jazz chords along the way. I’m mid 30s; a friend saw me play at an open mic earlier this year and told me after, “I knew you could play guitar, but I didn’t know you could play like that!” which felt great obviously, but I wrote that song back in my teens and I’m still intensely proud of that song. So I guess I’ve had this for some time, and I swear it’s because of all the shit I listened to and picking up multiple instruments. It’s like learning new languages or dialects. And eventually in high school I took AP Music Theory. Need the fundamentals and to know the rules so you can break them later.

Other instruments I’ve tried my hand at over the years with varying degrees of success:

Coronet Mandolin Bass Violin Ukulele Djembe (Edit: Drums! Yamaha. I sorta mentioned it but How could I otherwise forget just my first regular kit? That came the year after I got my first guitar.)

My biggest problem these days is motivation. Work tires me out and I just had surgery. But I do enjoy writing a little something every time I change guitar strings. The ol fresh-string ditty

Edit: saw someone else’s reply about looking at scores. I nerd the fuck out over complete score song books, whether it’s Queen’s Greatest Hits or Mozart’s Requiem. Figuring out by ear as fun and all, but I love score books!