Music-oriented Biography and Profile of Paul Badalamenti:

I've been involved with music in one way or another for almost 25 years now. Over the years I have attempted to learn at least a little something about every style of Western music, from songbook ditties to contemporary pop, jazz to heavy metal. I started as "just a guitarist", and along the way studied and practiced songwriting, composition, arranging, production, and recording.

First, guitar. This is how I started in music, at age 9. I've taken lessons with several teachers over the years, Francis Varrichio among them. With the addition of constant independent study and practice I have managed to acquire a solid foundation of theory, technique, and fluency in many styles of playing. Rock music, including classic, "prog", punk, and metal are what I do best simply because I have the most experience playing those styles. However, I also greatly enjoy playing blues and other blues-derived styles besides rock.; country is the focus of my study lately. I have been in a wide variety of bands including rock, pop, folk, and jazz. Notable among them is The Evelyn Situation, a quirky 6-piece that stirred the NJ folk scene in the mid nineties. I had the memorable opportunity to work with Andrew Durkin in this band, who has since gone on to make his mark on the west coast jazz world with his band The Industry Standard.

I have 3 guitars, the "classics": a Les Paul, strat, and tele. I have a Roland GP-16 multieffects unit and numerous "stompboxes" as well, but I don't have a "sound" -- I use whatever timbre is appropriate to the situation. In fact, if anything, I am a guitar chameleon, and even on styles I know nothing or next to nothing about, I can usually intuit and think my way through a situation and come up with something that works.

I have been a guitar teacher for more than 4 years now. I developed my own method for teaching the guitar, a combination of traditional book-based methods (like Mel Bay), Suzuki, and things I picked up from my own teachers. I am very glad to have been a guitar teacher, as the experience of inspiring students has been wonderful. I have also learned a great deal -- having to explain things I once took for granted has really deepened my own understanding of many aspects of guitar playing, and music in general. And once in a while a student will fire off a question, seemingly from out of nowhere, that will make me see something in an entirely new way. Very nice. Currently I am working on a book geared towards beginners who want to play rock and roll, which is based upon a handbook that I made for my students.

I started writing songs in college, and got involved with producing, arranging, and recording them in the mid 90's. A product of this was my first CD, "Itch." Since then I've logged hundreds of hours recording in studios and in my home, where I have a hard disk recording set-up. In the late 90's I took a serious look at the craft of composition. It was one of the best things I ever did because it enhanced my understanding of music at a nuts-and bolts level, and made me much better at every creative musical endeavor that I enjoy: guitar, writing, arranging, recording, and teaching. The whole bit. My second CD, "The Luna Stereo Theater", will be the first fruit of that amazing education.