Quick Q & A with Raymond Gonzalez
 by Kathy S-B  ·  22 August 2009

Q. When was the first time you ever picked up a guitar?

I was around 8 and was already playing the flute and violin. But once the guitar made it to my hands, that was it.

Did it feel like an old friend or did you have to learn how to handle it and get it to make the sounds you wanted it to make?

I was comfortable immediately. For some reason it made perfect sense. Plus it was the receptacle of all my teenage angst.

Who was your first guitar teacher?

My uncle showed me some chords. Exactly three! That’s what he knew. So I took them and ran. I was able to hear things on records and duplicate the sounds which is where I learned most of my early guitar playing. My grandmother brought home two LPs when I was 10: 1) the greatest hits of the classical guitar by John Williams, and 2) Sir John Alot by John Renbourn. I listened to them literally for years. They were really my first teachers. I finally decided to take some lessons when I was 21, playing guitar professionally and studying piano at the conservatory as an undergraduate.

Who were / are your guitar heroes?

John Williams, John Renbourn, Leo Kottke, Martin Simpson, Sharon Isbin.

Do you practice very day?

When time permits. I actually love to practice but my first love is composing. So if I’m practicing and get an idea. . . Then the practicing suffers a bit.

You’re a teacher as well as a performer. Do you teach all ages?

I prefer to start a student at around eight or nine. The guitar is physically very demanding on the hands so trying to play any younger is usually met with diminishing returns. The electric is easier which is usually a deterrent for the parents.

Do you find teaching music to be rewarding? Does it sometimes try your patience? (might not be a fair question. . .?)

I really do love teaching. It should always be fun as well as a challenge. There is nothing like discovering new musical things and no two students are alike. Try my patience? Hmmm. . .

Where do you see yourself ten years from now? Do you have any career goals that you have not yet achieved?

I really don’t think I have achieved any of my “ultimate” career goals. Life puts roads in front of you that sometimes have to be taken and may veer you off your path. I feel lucky to have a second chance, as it were, to reset my focus and go in my chosen direction. So. . . ten years hence I hope to be still on the composing, orchestrating, learning, guitar, recording road. And of course have buckets of money and be able to eat all the chocolate I want without my cholesterol going up.