After 30 plus years of playing music professionally, I guess I decided it is one area of life that I feel comfortable writing about. It started for me at the tender age of 12 playing what was known in those days as a Hootenanny in Hobbs, NM. I actually came in second in the competition, competing with early rock bands, twirlers, and an assortment of other wannabe stars. I was dressed up in a Mariachi outfit playing my newly learned version of "Malagueña" by Francisco Tarrega. It was so different in those days, I am sure that is why I did as well as I did in the competition. Anyway, I was hooked on playing in front of others.

I had teachers. On the guitar, my first was Mrs. Bell also in Hobbs, NM. She actually taught me some rudimentary reading, as well as some basic chords and progressions. I was learning wonderful tunes, like "Whispering Hope", and "Under the Double Eagle". Then came Ramon Herenandez, an excellent classical guitar teacher in Taos, NM, during the summers for a couple of years. Songs I remember from him include "Lady of Spain". Then came my main professor for years (even now), Antonio Mendoza, orginally from Durango, Mexico, then Taos, New Mexico. The real musical guts that I was able to absorb on guitar came from him. Antonio has a great depth and breadth of classical, flamenco, jazz, as well as a great feel for the wonderful rancheras from Mexico. As an entertainer, he is also unsurpassed in my experience.

Then came Hector Garcia, a professor at the University of New Mexico. I studied with him for a semester, and appreciated his great feel for the instrument. During these times, I began to dabble with electric guitar and rock and roll bands were the rage.

By the time I was a senior in high school I was a member of my first bona fide rock band, The Aggravations, at Wheelus Air Force Base High School in Tripoli, Libya, North Africa. We were playing the high school dances, and an occasional gig at the Uuadaan Hotel in Tripoli, for $25-50.00 a man per night. That was a lot of money in those days (1966-67). We were playing cover songs from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, Beachboys, Grassroots, and other bands of the time. I was playing through a Farfisa amp with a Harmony Jazz Guitar, then came a Hofner Exquisite lead guitar with a Vox Super Beatle amp.

Equipment then was a challange to keep running, if you could find it. We had plans that following summer to play clubs in Malta, which looked like heaven then. However, due to the June War between Israel and Egypt, that all fell apart, and all the American expatriots in Libya were boarded onto Air Force planes out of the area and into Spain, where we made our way back to the U.S., and thus closed the door on that band forever. Once back in the States, I was ready to play again as soon as possible, so I floated between several bands in college in Albuquerque.

I might add here that while in school I also played piano, clarinet, sax, cornet, and any other instrument that made itself available, just for the fun of it. The sax and the clarinet I was fairly accomplished on, but not the rest...

I had three wonderful band directors during my school career, and they all contributed a great deal to my musical background, but the one that was a real inspiration to me was Orin L. Bartholomew in Eunice, NM. This gentleman had a great depth of knowledge with music, and he knew how to impart the precision and persistence necessary to succeed on an instrument. Many, many hours were spent on the music basics through books, scores, and playing. The point is that all of this stuff works together at some point to enable people such as me the opportunity to not only make a living from playing if I wish, but more importantly, to really enjoy and love it, and maybe play well enough to inspire someone else to try it.

So, you want to play. Where do you start?
Find out in GNW next week, in part two...

(© 2001 by Mark S. Moody)

For feedback or reference: marksmoody@uswest.net