When I was very young.. like age 4 or 5, I have memories of my dad playing guitar. He always played a classical-style acoustic, and would play ballads and similar music. He would either whistle the melody as he played, or sometimes he would sing as well. The song I remember the most from that age is "Puff the Magic Dragon".

As one of four children in my family, I learnt to play various instruments as I grew up. I would fiddle around with the family piano but never really took any lessons. At one stage, when I was about 12, I started to learn the viola (bigger version of violin).. I think I managed to learn "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" fairly well but that's about all.

At age 15 my parents couldn't handle me living at home any more and threw me out (yes, I was an animal :D haha) and I ended up in a hostel for young people. So with a lot of time on my hands, I managed to secure myself my dad's acoustic with his permission of course. And I played.. and I played.. and I played.. for weeks and weeks. I bruised and blistered my fingers during the first few weeks but I didn't care.. I just kept playing and playing and playing..

Eventually, though I'm not sure exactly how long it took, I decided that it was time to get my own guitar. I got a very cheap electric guitar and tiny little practise amp. At that stage, I still didn't even know how to string a guitar.. I figured, at that point, that it would be a good idea to get some basic skills from a guitar teacher. So I learnt some scales and some intermediate chord shapes.. Once I could see the patterns on the fret board, I didn't really need anymore of that type of help.. and have since been self-taught.