Welcome to Music! I am launching a brand new section on Mark Starlin Writes! called Music. This section will be mainly about my music, but I may also write about other music.
If you have no interest in the musical part of my creativity, you can unsubscribe to the Music section. I put instructions at the bottom of this newsletter.
I thought I would begin by sharing the story of how I became a musician.
Music has always been a part of my life. I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t. Some of my earliest memories are listening to my Dad’s 8-tracks while riding in the car. The excitement I had when a big bus would pull up to our little corner church and a gospel quartet would perform a concert. And Saturdays, when my Dad would play albums on the stereo at home.
I have always loved music. And the sound of the guitar in particular. But there was one pivotal moment when I went from listening to music to having a strong desire to be the one creating music.
When I was nine or ten, someone left a guitar at our house for a couple of hours. I don’t remember who or why, but there it sat, up against our couch. I couldn’t resist. It seemed magical. I knew it could be used to make music. And music was magic to me. I slowly made my way closer and closer. I knew I probably shouldn’t touch it, but it was irresistible. I gently touched one of the strings. It made a sound. My heart jumped. I brushed my fingers across all the strings. The sound was fascinating. I was hooked. I knew at that very moment I would become a guitar player.
“Don’t play with that. It’s not a toy,” my Mom said.
I stopped, but I never forgot the feeling of sound coming from my fingers touching strings.
I spent the next two years hounding my parents for a guitar. They suggested I try a band instrument at school first. So I took a year of trombone. I actually wanted to play the flute, but the band instructor told me that “girls play the flute” and that I needed to play the trombone. Obviously, he just needed a trombone player for the band. My heart wasn’t in it. I wanted to play guitar. I quit at the end of the school year.
Finally realizing I would not abandon my begging, my parents bought me a cheap guitar for my 12th birthday. That was the start.
My parents never complained when, as a teen, I played guitar six hours straight, late into the night. In fact, my Mom said she had a hard time going to sleep at night after I moved out because there was no guitar playing. Nor did they complain when they had to drive me a half hour to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a half-hour guitar lesson.
I had outgrown the guitar teacher across the street and began taking lessons from a jazz guitarist named Robert Richter. Although I wanted to be a rocker, he introduced me to many genres of music and taught me to appreciate them all. I also fell in love with the melodic jazz and sambas he taught me as I progressed as a guitar player.
After 51 years, making music is still one of the most enjoyable things I do. Along the way, I have also learned keyboards, bass, and ukulele.
Making music transports me to another place. A place of pure creativity. I love it. It is still as magical to me now as when I was a boy brushing my finger across those guitar strings for the very first time.
Mark
You can check out my current band—American Garage Band— here:
https://www.tiktok.com/@americangarageband
I hope you will stick around as I share and talk about my music. But if you would rather not, this is how you can unsubscribe to the Music section.
Click on this link to go to the Mark Starlin Writes website.
Then click on your profile icon in the upper right corner.
Then select Manage Subscriptions.
Then deselect the Music section.
That’s it. You won’t get any more Music emails. But you can still read them on the website.
Wondering where that additional creativity comes from, Mark! Bring out the guitars! 🎸
I grew up in Ypsilanti. Then lived in Belleville and Canton before moving to North Carolina.
Guitars make good wall decorations also. 🤓