I have been a musician for many, many years, starting out like the
typical kid in a garage band. After leaving high school behind,
I began to play my guitar in nightclubs all over New England, including the old
"Combat Zone" in Boston.
Since those early days, I continued to work hard at my craft and
became successful as a top-rated guitarist. I have played
guitar for "Steve Smith and The Nakeds" over the last
fifteen years. I began to teach guitar in September 2003 and discovered that I enjoy
it a great deal and want to share my musical experience and knowledge gained throughout the 35+ years that I have played guitar.
My earliest musical experiences were with the cornet while attending grade school, and as a drummer and bugle blower in a marching band.
By age 14, my father showed me my very first guitar chords.
I never forgot what an important role family plays in encouraging
musical interest. I continued learning by listening to recordings, reading music songbooks,
listening to other guitarists play, and by starting my own band. By the time I was in junior high school, I was already getting paying gigs at school dances, grange halls, and private
parties. My family supported us by providing transportation
and rehearsal space and helping us to acquire the instruments and
equipment that we needed.
I began to take an interest in Blues while attending high school, banding together with a group that had similar interests.
It was necessary to play music that was popular in those days (Hendrix, Doors, Jefferson Airplane, etc.)
because that was what people wanted to hear when we played.
But, we always interspersed blues music inspired by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Paul Butterfield, and many
others into our set list. My musical mentor in high school was
a guitarist, Phil Greene, who was later to become the owner and recording engineer at
Normandy Sound, one of the most acclaimed recording studios in New
England. His playing was advanced well beyond my own ability
at that time, and I thank him greatly for helping me to become a competent guitarist.
Phil introduced me to my first professional gig with an eight-piece show band "Albi & the Spellbinders".
Just out of high school, I found myself learning the ropes in the seediest nightclubs
of Boston's Combat Zone and North Shore.
During my mid-twenties, I attended Rhode Island Junior College where I received a formal music education taking courses in music foundations, ear-training, sight-singing, music theory and class piano.
My
sight-reading ability is a bit slow but functional and it didn't
prevent me from composing and scoring several arrangements for the ten-piece band I currently work with.
My favorite guitar studies are by Joe Pass and Mickey Baker, and I enjoy listening to
all the old blues and jazz standards.
Over the years, I've played with many other musicians in many
different bands. Most notably, in the mid-seventies, I was the guitarist and
a founding member of Rhode Island's legendary "Young Adults".
By the early eighties, I became dismayed at the prospect of
making a decent living in music, which seemed almost impossible at
the time. Although I never stopped playing guitar
altogether, I opted for a continuing education in electronics
engineering, attending school evenings and working jobs during the
day to support myself. Over the course of the next fifteen
years, I worked my way up through the rank and file, starting out
as as draftsman, and eventually landing a position as a
development engineer. I never really found the job security
that I was looking for. What I found out was that the
electronics industry was just as volatile, if not more so, than
the music industry. By the mid-nineties I was sitting on the
fence, and it didn't take much of a push for me to fall off and
land on the music side.
Although I have
written many original songs, only three of them were ever published.
I have two film credits for music that I played with the Young
Adults for "Cobra Snake For A Necktie" and "Complex
World". Clarence Clemmons, Bo Diddley, and Gary US Bonds are names of
the most famous people that I have played guitar for or recorded with.
I am a member of ASCAP, and a recipient of two public service awards from the New England Cable Television Association
(NECTA).
Several times each year, I donate my time and talent to help with various charity organizations
in fundraising activities that provide relief to victims of
disease, hunger, homelessness, abuse, poverty, and disasters. I am
humbled to participate in these endeavors, and
feel a sense of responsibility as an artist to help without question
whenever there is an opportunity.
My greatest challenge is learning how to listen to my inner voice. To be
excellent not only as a musician, but also as a songwriter, or storyteller, you have to be
honest
with yourself and be in touch your very center. Whenever I
am able to do that, I find peace within my self.
I am
greatly influenced by music, songs and stories that express the various kinds of sentiments that
everyone experiences in life. They provide a handle or universal
idea to grasp onto, enabling each individual to realize that
by sharing those moods and feelings they are less isolated
and alone in the world.
-Ed Vallee
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