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A Life of Guitar (the long story)

Webpage Updated: 06-Feb-2010

This is the story of my musical life. Follow my journey down the road of happy destiny in search of self-realization as a spiritual guitarist(external link).

While reading my story, you can listen to some demo recordings of my music by launching the popup jukebox.

In the Beginning

I was born in Cape May Courthouse, New Jersey(external link) on April 10, 1961 and raised in a bicultural, bilingual (English/Spanish) environment. When I was nine years old, my family decided to move to Venezuela(external link), the birth country of my mom. One day when I was about eleven years old, I wondered into my dad’s den and found a Spanish guitar stored in the closet. Along with the guitar were several traditional songbooks that had chord charts. I realized what the chord charts meant and figured out how to place my fingers accordingly on the guitar fretboard.

Shortly after, I purchased my first Deep Purple(external link), Led Zeppelin(external link), Yes(external link), and Pink Floyd(external link) albums. I was immediately inspired by the guitarists of these bands Ritchie Blackmore(external link), Jimmy Page(external link), Steve Howe(external link), and David Gilmour(external link).

Watch my rock guitar performance video of my improvisational tune "The RLSguitar Shred."

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The Path to Learning

A couple of years later, I had the opportunity of receiving a few lessons from the then very young Venezuelan master guitarist/composer Alfonso Montes(external link), who is a now one of the most well-known and respected figures in the world of the classical guitar and member of the famous Duo Montes-Kircher(external link).

On my first day of class, Alfonso noticed that I had special talent and self-taught skills. So he separated me from the other students and from then on provided me individual mentoring. In an unorthodox manner, he showed me how to develop my ear and discover the guitar on my own. The few weekly lessons I received during six months where sufficient to enable me to develop my guitar skills auto-didactically. Alfonso Montes never accepted payment for teaching me.

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Coming of Age

Throughout my life, I have moved back and forth between USA and Venezuela. In middle and high school, I played lead (electric) guitar in many amateur rock bands in Venezuela and in Miami, Florida. During college in Venezuela, I performed professionally as lead guitarist for Fantasía, a locally popular rock band. At the time, Fantasía had several original songs playing on local radio stations. After graduating from Universidad de Oriente(external link) with a licentiate degree (bachelor's equivalent) in Industrial Management, the guitar became my main hobby.

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The Happy-Dark Years

My passion for music and life’s temptations overcame my senses. Being a young man recognized among peers as a gifted guitarist and performer, presented me with many opportunities for excessive indulgence. Nevertheless, God has also blessed me with much joy in life.

I met my beautiful soul mate and wife-to-be Monica, while studying University in the twin city area of Barcelona-Puerto La Cruz(external link), Venezuela. Soon after, we were married and about a year later, God blessed us with a gift from heaven: the birth of our precious daughter Blanca Isabel. Isabel, as she likes to be called, was born two days before my twenty-ninth birthday. The first time I held her was on my birthday...what a birthday gift!

Watch my performance video of my tune "Loving Monica."

My father died of a heart attack on April 11, 1993, about three years after my daughter’s birth and the next day after my birthday. It was Easter (Resurrection) Sunday. Grief-stricken by my father’s sudden death, I fell victim to alcoholism and other dependencies. About my father, I can say that he was the gentlest, kindest and smartest person I’ve ever known. He was always there for me and strived to make my mother, my brother and me happy, which he did. He was more than a father to me: he was my role model, big brother, best friend, protector and drinking buddy. I cherish every moment I shared with him and miss him so very much. My heart will mourn him for the rest of my life.

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The Road of Happy Destiny

The unconditional love and support from my wife and daughter eventually led me to the road of recovery. The love of my family changed my life around dramatically and provided me with a new perspective on life. That is when I decided to sell everything I owned and return to the USA to provide my family with a new, better life. The social, political and economic situation in Venezuela was becoming dire.

I returned to the USA in 1996 to start a new life and decided to settle in the Greater Houston(external link) area of Texas. For several years, I only played a Spanish guitar (similar to my dad’s) to myself and did very little composing, until I purchased a CD on a whim and discovered a completely new world of guitar playing. The CD was Aerial Boundaries(external link) by the late great Michael Hedges(external link).

Soon after, I discovered the music and guitar stylings of Doug Smith(external link) and Peppino D’Agostino(external link), which finally inspired him to take this new path of acoustic guitar as well as composing instrumentals using open tunings, tapping and harmonics. So I purchased a couple new yet cheap acoustic guitars and began my journey to guitar playing bliss. I titled my first composition within this new philosophy of guitar playing “The Road of Happy Destiny,” which represents my path to recovery by the life-saving impact I received from meditating on the following words:

"…Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.

May God bless you and keep you—until then."

— Final words in the Big Book(external link) of Alcoholics Anonymous(external link); Chapter 11, A Vision for You(external link).

Watch my performance video of my tune "The Road of Happy Destiny."

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A New Beginning

For the past few years, the guitar has been my main passion, which I consider a gift from God after my struggle with recovery. Although God had already granted me a second chance at life through recovery, there were still many more blessings in store for me.

In 2005, my life on Earth was almost cut short due to heart disease; a consequence of heredity worsened by my earlier lifestyle as a young man. What I thought was severe heartburn pain was actually severely clogged coronary arteries that had me on the verge of a massive heart attack. Fortunately, my cardiologist was able to save my life by performing two emergency angioplasty procedures. This was another miracle granted to me because the medical team were actually about to perform emergency bypass surgery, but at the last moment were able to figure out a much less invasive procedure. A year later, my cardiologist had to perform another procedure to correct more coronary artery blockage, proving my disease to be very aggressive. I now have five stents in my arteries and more are not possible. Next time, I will have to undergo bypass surgery.

Just four days after leaving the hospital the first time in November 2005, I received yet another gift from heaven: a beautiful, healthy grandson named Joshua Robert. God not only had granted me yet another chance at life, but also the privilege and immense joy of helping my young daughter raise Joshua.

In these last few years, I have been gifted by God with an ever-expanding spiritual awakening and rediscovery of the Catholic faith, driven by a series of continuous religious experiences. This has brought me much closer to God, my family, and to others. It has also been a guiding force and source of inspiration for my music.

I truly mean it when I say, “It doesn’t get any better than this!” I will be forever grateful to God for so many gifts. I show my thanks by praising Our Lord Jesus Christ the best way I know with one of my gifts from heaven: my guitar music.

Watch my performance video of my tune "A New Beginning."

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Current Endeavors

I perform at Houston area coffeehouses, private events, festivals, and other venues. Currently, I am in the process of recording my many instrumental guitar compositions on audio and video. I recently purchased a twelve-string harp guitar for which I have several compositions in process. Additionally, I am continuously developing new web content, a series of intermediate-to-advanced acoustic guitar workshops and various interactive instructional materials.

Watch my performance video on harp guitar of my tune "Sacred Heart."

Sharing my gift of guitar and the message of my music to all who wish to receive it is a major mission in my life. If you would like to receive my message of music, please subscribe to my email list, come see me at my live performances, send me a personal message, or post a comment in the guestbook and let me know. I wish to hear from you.

Watch my performance video of my tune "The Messengers."

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