History :: My Teachers :: Contributing Musicians :: Tunings Used

Current: Favorite Nations artist. Albums mastered and published to iTunes by Steve Vai.

Greetings. I began playing guitar at the age of 11 and started performing at age 13 with my older brother: Howard C. Howard. We had a bluegrass band called the Smoggy Mountain Boys (we were from Los Angeles, which was still very smoggy in the early `60's). We played all the hoot nights (short for hootenanny) at various clubs around L.A. We also competed yearly at the Topanga Canyon Banjo and Fiddle Contest: when they were still being held at Camp Wildwood in Topanga Canyon. I played guitar, Howard played banjo. We also had mandolin, bass, and occasionally fiddle and dobro.

In our 20's Howard and I created a progressive rock ensemble called the Voonderband along with drummer Rich O'Connell. Howard had transitioned to electric guitar (high calibre soloist and singer), I played rhythm and slide guitar, Rich was on drums (great drummer and also a writing and arranging contributor), Bob Farrell on keyboards, and Carl Sealove and Mick Mahan: bass at various times. All compositions were co-written by Howard and myself: © 2016 Voonderband Music.

I lived in London: teaching, recording and performing, as well as studying Indian music, and adapting my studies to guitar. I studied with Martin Simpson, the late Isaac Guillory, and Ratnakar Vyas, while teaching 27 students of my own. All were excellent teachers as well as superb musicians and; performers. Isaac was a mentor in many ways. I also met my second very important teacher of Indian classical music: Ratnakar Vyas, sarod. Hari Har Rao [sitar] in Los Angeles, who was a Fulbright Scholar at UCLA and an early student of Ravi Shankar's, was my first teacher. Hari was also the founder of the Ravi Shankar Music Circle, today known simply as The Music Circle. Upon my return from London, while living in Northern California, I had the great opportunity as well to study with Maestro Ali Akbar Khan at his school in San Rafael. I was one of two guitar players amidst a sea of sitar and sarod players!

Martin Simpson taught in a small guest house behind his modest residence in Richmond, England just outside of London. I always enjoyed the trip out to his place as it was a long train ride and a lot of walking; Martin reinforced the concept of tone and articulation for me. Although our styles were quite different there were still many places that we met. I consider him to be one of my main fingerstyle influences. He's a great player and teacher. I consider him a friend as well.

Isaac Guillory was an American ex-patriot living in London. Isaac was a seasoned solo performer. When he wasn't driving all over the countryside playing he was in London. He was a fine teacher as well. He taught inspirational clinics on UL's central London campus and they were always well attended. The University had some great acoustic stairwells and I used to practice in them before and after classes. I was working in several guitar tunings at the time: Standard, Drop D, Dadgad, EAC#EAE, and CGCGCF which I used when I studied with Indian sarod teacher Ratnakar Vyas. The beautiful echo of the stairwells inspired the development of many compositions. Ratnakar Vyas, Sarod, was a great teacher for me, a beautiful and humble man and a fine player. I consider him, Hari Har Rao, and Maestro Ali Akbar Khan to be my strongest influences as pertains my slide style; and John Fahey as my original, and most impacting influence, as regards: solo fingerstyle guitar, improvisation, and altered tunings. I`ve also listened extensively to subarhar [a kind of baritone sitar] and sarangi which is a lap held cello-like instrument fingered using the cuticles of the left hand (ouch!). All these sliding influences were to later show up in my recordings. Although I had been listening to Indian music since I was a teenager, and playing slide since 1971, these years from 1986 to 1996 shaped my sound.

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MUSICIANS CONTRIBUTING TO ALL CD`s

Richard Peikoff: Acoustic Guitar, Slide Guitar, Baritone Guitar, High String Guitar

Jeff Miley: Nylon String and Acoustic Guitar,

Cliff Novey: Synthetic Ensemble

Buzz Feiten: Electric and Nylon String Guitar

John M. Keane: Drums and Keyboards (co writer and producer on Up Bubble)

Michael Manring: Fret-less Bass

Tom Kennedy: Bass

Lenny Castro: Percussion

Paul Livingstone: Tambura

Bob Een: Cello and Voice

Dave Beyer: Percussion

Parsuram Sherla: Tabla, Tambura

Chris Chitouras: Electric Guitar

Gordon Rehm; Bass

Kit Walker: Keyboards

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TUNINGS USED:

E A Db E A E___A Major Tuning

A E A D E A ___(High Strung) Asus4 Tuning

B Gb B Gb B E___Bsus4 Tuning

C A D E A D___ C M6/9 or A Minor4 Tuning

C G C F G C___C sus4 Tuning

C G C G C F___ Csus4 Tuning

C G C Gb G C___ C sus Aug 4 Tuning

C G C G Bb E___C7 Tuning

D G D E A D___Dsus2 Tuning

D A D G A D___Dsus4 Tuning

D A D Gb A D___Dsus Aug 4 Tuning

D G D G Bb D___G Minor Tuning

D G D G Ab D___G5b2 Tuning

D G D G A D___Gsus2 Tuning