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My Past Coming Back to Haunt Me

Vaughn McMillan

Vaughn McMillan

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Back in the late '70s and early '80s, I was a guitar teacher (and repairman) at Luchetti Drum and Guitar in Albuquerque. At the peak, I was teaching private lessons to 40 to 50 kids per week. Every once in a while, I get a message from one of my old students who've tracked me down via the Internet. I had to share these two messages I recently got from a kid named Greg McCool (yes, that's really his last name):

Hey Vaughn , You taught me how to play guitar at Luchettis, in mid 70s
I would bring you my rehersal schedule so you could teach me my guitar parts so I could keep my job in ROCK CITY .And I would bring acid influenced drawings to hang in your studio.Thanks for your gift to teach, I have been very succesful in music ,I won awards for jingle writing ,I have recorded many albums for myself and others and I am currently teaching as well . Anyway last news I heard of you was from jeff donohoe years ago when you broke your back? I m really thankful you were my teacher I can truly say that you were a huge part of my mis spent youth (I mean that in a good way)Its all worked out great.
I would love to here from you .
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I sent him a short note telling him what I'd been up to for the past 30 years, and I got this one from him tonight:

Hey Vaughn ,Thanks for the reply .I just wanted you to know that I won the KING OF THE BLUES competition at Guitar Centers nationwide search for the undiscovered blues guitarist .I will be representing new mexico in the phoenix district finals .The grand prize is 25,000$ and a gibson endorsement and all kinds of good stuff. I really owe it all to you for your amazing gift And When they ask who my influences are ,along with jimmy page ,robben ford, carl verheyen ,jeff beck,cris cain,larry carlton,eric clapton just to name a few,I mention you ! . Thanks Man ! Wish me luck.Love ya man.Greg
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I can't help but feel like a proud papa when I get notes like that. ;)
 
Nice - Great Teacher - God Guy!

Very nice!

I bet there are more students out there with similar stories.


I can see the future now -----++++30 years from now.

Wow Vaughn, those cutting boards you showed me how to make .............

I do know a couple of cutting boards Vaughn helped me with a few years ago are still a topic of interest at some friends homes.
 
You need to print those emails out, shellac them onto a board and hang it in your shop/office/whereever, in times of sadness/reflection it will be a source of strength. I have a poem written by a student a couple of years back that his father had died at an early age, his poem told me many things about our time together that I didn't realize he was feeling. I look at that often. Good for you, congratulations, great thread.
 
Vaughn, one of the sweet rewards of life is when someone acknowledges that you made a difference in their life.

Just this week I was approached by a gentleman who I helped a few years ago to get an interview at a company for a job. He got the job and is very happy there. He told me that I had profoundly changed his life by helping him make that contact.

Well, you never know when some little thing you do for someone else will result in making their life better.

Pass it forward.......:thumb:
 
What a great thing that email was to have come along. That's gotta make you feel good that you have helped someone find or expand their gift of music. Very, very cool.
 
Vaughn, that is awesome. Good teachers - mentors are hard to find but I am surprised he remembered the 70's "And I would bring acid influenced drawings to hang in your studio"

Let me add one to your collection :rofl: "Double Vision" Mid 70's
 

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Congratulations Vaughn!
That must be one of the most rewarding things one can experience. What about going to teach guitar playing again? or even better playing? Maybe that's a signal for you to read...:thumb:
 
Dave Hawksford said:
...Let me add one to your collection :rofl: "Double Vision" Mid 70's
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That looks amazingly similar to some of the stuff he used to bring in. :p :thumb:

Toni Ciuraneta said:
...What about going to teach guitar playing again? or even better playing? Maybe that's a signal for you to read...:thumb:
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I've considered teaching again, although I don't think I have it in me to get back into performing, at least not here in LA. It's a very ruthless business here. In Albuquerque, I was a big fish in a small sea. In LA, I'd be a minnow in the ocean.

Of course as I demonstrated to you a couple months ago, I'd need to spend a lot of time getting back into shape. I can barely play these days. :eek:

Brent Dowell said:
Amazing what you can find with a little googling around on the interwebs...
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Here are some more (and a few repeats from the video, I think) on Steve's (the keyboard player) Facebook pages:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=3490&id=100001029582658&ref=pb

Those were very fun times. :thumb:

Tom Niemi said:
I have seen those just the other day Brent, actually my son found the CD for me yesterday:D:thumb:
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Where did he find the CD? We recorded a 5-song EP on vinyl, but that was before CDs were around. Years later, Steve made copies of the vinyl record onto CD, but it was never officially released. (The sound quality of the vinyl pressing was poor, and it was even worse after it got ripped to CD.) A few years back we tried to resurrect the 24-track 2" master tapes so we could digitally remaster the recordings, but time and temperature had taken a toll on the magnetic tape and it was no longer playable. :( Even though the songs we recorded back then sound kind of outdated and quaint today, we would have liked to have a good-quality digital copy for posterity.

Oh, and here's another one of my students who's made a name for himself:

Marc Maron

He was an angst-filled rebellious Jewish kid when I was his teacher. (His mom used to call me before his lesson to tell me about whatever trouble he was in at home or school, in hopes that I could "talk some sense" into him. I was more of a counselor than a music teacher some weeks.) He's gone on to make a nice living out of being an angst-filled Jewish comic. He and I have differing viewpoints about a lot of things, but I still get a kick out of seeing him on TV.
 
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