When I was a kid, I always wanted to play the guitar. Don't know what compelled me to play it. I remembered playing on a plastic toy guitar when I was 5 during Christmas time. I owned 2 plastic guitars and I remembered them well. One was white and red, the other was black and blue. Both made simple MIDI style sounds. I didn't care, I was 5. I was shredding on that thing like I was a real rock star. It was a great feeling. Since I was little, I always wanted to learn to play the real guitar, but I instead learned piano, keyboard, and some other things resembling a piano during my times in band back in elementary school. My parents were always broke so they couldn't afford lessons and that dream of mine slowly faded away.

Fast forward to middle school. I didn't know much about music. I was into other things when I was middle school, like video games...and Legos.

However, my love for music sort of developed around this time...and I still regret to some of the people I listened to. People like Mase, Puff Daddy, Eminem, and Dr. Dre. Yea, I was a full blown...well...'wigger' shall we say. It was what I was into at the time...and I still facepalm at the thought of it.

I was in that phase when heading to High School. What slowly got me away from this phase was the Nu-Metal genre that was coming through at the time. Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park (mainly Linkin Park) are some of the bands that slowly caused my transition from rap to rock. High school opened the doors for me when it came to music and I learned alot. Especially when mom got together with my stepdad.

The full blown transition to rock didn't really achieve 100% until I graduated from High School. Since then, my whole outlook on music change. Listened to more classic rock, listened to rock from other countries, and listened to even some underground stuff. I owe it to my friends and stepdad to get me to where I am today. A full blown metalhead. A headbanger for life.

Now fast forward to 2005, a year after I graduated. I heard of a game that was released on the Playstation 2, called Guitar Hero.

I had the money at the time, went to Gamestop, and I purchased it. Why? Well, I wanted to see what this game was about and I really love the guitar (even during my rap phase).

After playing through the game, and learning how to play it, the fire within me began to rekindle. That love I had when I was a kid, to play the guitar, to shred and rock out, returned to me. Since then I was hooked on Guitar Hero. Practice day in and day out on that game. Everytime I managed to go up one difficulty, I felt like I accomplished something big.

If it wasn't for Guitar Hero, I wouldn't be playing the real guitar right now. Guitar Hero actually inspired me to go and play the real guitar...something I always wanted to do my whole life. It's been almost 2 years now since I got my first guitar and I can say I can play it pretty decently. Managed to accomplish playing "Highway Star" by Deep Purple. Even nailed the solo, which took me a week or 2 to learn.

Even though I play the real guitar, I still play Guitar Hero like mad. Since 2005, I have beaten Guitar Hero's 1 and 2 on Expert and playing 3 right now. Managed to beat "Number of the Beast" on Expert. Working my up to "Raining Blood" now.

On Rock Band, everytime I go to my friend's place, I'm always the guitarist. 5 star all the time.

Since then, I also learned to do tricks. Playing the guitar behind my head is my favorite thing to do and I still nail the notes. I managed to raise alot of eyebrows when I did that. I remembered doing that at the Florida Supercon. It shocked a crap load of people, including 2 of the DJs that works for Miami's local Rock radio station. It even got the attention of 2 people that generally post on this very website. I am very happy with all the feedback I got about my guitar playing, whether real or in the virtual world.

In any multiplayer game I have played, I'm always the loser. I have never been good in any fighting game, racer, sport, or even FPS game I ever played. Guitar Hero and Rock Band are the only 2 games I can safely say I can destroy anyone in within my group of friends...and that feels good to know that even though I suck at everything else game related, I still have GH to latch on too.

Now, I'm actually working on going pro with this. I want to see where this will take me. Enter tourneys, practice, and what not. I guess I owe this kind of inspiration from the book "Video Game Careers". It would be awesome to be a pro gamer. I got my game of choice, might as well see this through.

I'm one of those players that can say, I owe part of my life to Guitar Hero. I managed to achieve a dream of mine after playing this game and now I can shred the living crap out of GH and Rock Band and really rock my socks out on the real guitar.

And I'm having loads of fun doing it.

Well, on to training again, and hopefully a tourney around South Florida will open up soon.

Also, excuse the tl;dr. I like to write alot.