STUDENT NEWSLETTER 24 December 2008 
HUGE day today for me. Please read.
50 Years of Experience
40 years ago today man first stepped foot on the moon. 50 years ago today I started my journey as a guitarman.
One of the most vivid of my childhood memories is of Christmas Eve 1958. I was five years old. My family was living in the same apartment complex as my Grandparents and their kids; my Aunt and Uncle in Louisville Kentucky. My Uncle John was only 4 years older than me. Every Christmas Eve my Mom, Dad, and two brothers would go to see my Mother's family and exchange gifts. On this occasion it was about 8pm, dark, and snowing. My folks were getting us all out of the car and we were walking up to Grandma's front door when my Uncle Jack walked out the door onto the front porch playing the guitar he just got for Christmas. He was faking Jingle Bells. It hit me like a ton of rocks. I knew instantly that I wanted to be a guitar player more than anything at that very moment. That feeling has not diminished (music pun) in 50 years.
Since we all lived in the same apartment complex I would walk over to Grandma's place and play my Uncle's guitar everyday. One time my Grandpa Ben said: "Joe sounds better than Jack and he's the one taking lessons." That is the only memory I have of my Grandpa Ben as he died young. Jack lost interest quickly and opted to play baseball so he never said a word about me playing his guitar. A few months later my Father bought a house (that he still lives in today) and we were leaving the apartments. I was in a panic that I would not be able to have access to the guitar once we left. On the last day my Mother told me to go say goodbye to Grandma because we were leaving for good. It was not premeditated, but when I went to say bye to Grandma I snatched the guitar from my Uncles closet. No one said anything so I took it with me to the new house.
I had no idea of how to tune a guitar so I just played melodies on the tuning I came up with that looking back was an open G tuning with the six strings tuned from low to high DGBDGB. My first song was TAPS. My second song was REVELRY. Whenever someone was playing guitar on TV I would sit 12" from the tv and try and copy what they were doing. I would not put the guitar down. My folks noticed my musical aptitude and enrolled me in piano lessons at St. Anthony's where I went to school in the 2nd grade with a Catholic nun. I was six years old at that time. I took lessons for about 5 years and practiced on the old out of tune piano my Dad bought for $25 and never had it tuned. It sounded like hell and I hated to play it. My Mother would stand over me and force me to practice everyday. The second my 30 minutes was up I would run to my guitar and play it for hours on end.
I still have that guitar today.
To think of what that little guitar started is really amazing.
I ended up making guitar my career out of pure love of the instrument. The side benefits were unexpected. Like the time the guitar saved me from boot camp in the NAVY. Or the first day onboard the ship I was stationed on when I was made the ship's band leader and served my time in the military representing the First Naval District in shows across the east coast. Playing in bands was always fun and gave me the opportunity to travel and see places I would have never seen otherwise. I have played guitar in places as exotic as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and all over the USA coast to coast border to border. I started charging for guitar lessons in 1974 when I first got out of the service and was going to school full time at Indiana University SE. I was also playing in my own band and working full time for the Indiana State Highway Department as a night watchman. I was very busy! In 1978 I moved to Dallas and have been here ever since.
As a guitar teacher I have taught over 50,000 people (including DVD, VHS sales). Many have wonderful stories to tell about what guitar has done for them and all the great people they got to meet all because of guitar. I get great letters telling of how my method changed their life. I hope all 50,000 learned enough to pass it on to someone else. I wonder how many people have learned my method in the past 34 years.
I never liked to play in bars or nightclubs for obvious reasons like I don't drink or smoke or stay up late. It took all the fun out of playing guitar for me. I have never got tired of teaching. It is a pure joy to pass on the information that took a lifetime to get to the next generation of guitar players. I have two DVDs that show my method. Also on VHS, and CD audio.
Playing guitar is even more fun today. Much of my time is spent recording and composing when not teaching guitar and bass. The recording project is coming along well and I will be releasing some new CDs this spring.
"A life doing beautiful things is a beautiful life." -unknown
If you are reading this letter chances are I have you to thank for helping me live my dream.
I wish the absolute best for you and yours in 2009.
Peace and Love.
Rock On,
Joe "TheGuitarman" Pacciano, C.G.P.
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