My Passion With Scott Reading

My dad was my first teacher when I was 12 and he taught me how to play my first song – House of the Rising Sun by The Animals.

I can’t even remember what make and model of guitar it was, but all I know is it was electric.

At the time I used to listen to groups like Erasure and the Pet Shop Boys, but when my friend brought an Iron Maiden tape around to my house it changed my musical taste forever.

I can remember that moment like it was yesterday, and although that type of music has a certain stereotype, I found it an escape, and I still love going to rock concerts even if I have to go on my own.

When I left school at 16, I got my first job working for the Royal Mail and I saved up for my own guitar and started to take guitar lessons.

I used to go with a friend of mine so we could keep the cost of the lessons down. He was better than me, which used to frustrate me at times.

These lessons didn’t last long, though, because when you’re 16 and you start getting paid every Friday, there are a million and one other things to do in this world.

So I started to do some travelling with my girlfriend and I saved and spent a lot of my wages to go around the world. Australia twice, Fiji, Canada, Hong Kong and two tours of America were the destinations I would go to as well as many others.

But wanting to learn the guitar never left me and I was always practising, trying to get better and better.

But by the age of 23, I had reached a plateau, which often happens to guitar players, so I decided to find a new teacher.

I came across a guy called Neil Brocklebank. Now this guy was good, seriously good, and he was playing the heavy metal and rock music I wanted to play, but I knew the road would be a very long one to get to where I wanted to be with my guitar playing.

In life, lots of different things pop up that steer you in different ways.

By the age of 28, my wife and I decided it would be a good time to start a family, so this obviously took priority over my guitar.

Time went by and now I am older and wiser and my children have grown up a bit, I have more time to get back into my guitar playing.

Over the last two years, I’ve been hitting the guitar practice hard and I am now getting to the standard where I wanted to see myself all those years ago.

My two major goals now are to get into a band and to start teaching other students the wonderful fulfilment that comes with playing the guitar.