Music had always been a large part of my life when I was young. After High School, I played in a beach and soul band for about four years. I played trumpet and Sax and did vocals. After I left the band, Disco was the new thing. With my experience with sound systems and lighting, I moved into the world of a disco DJ. It was called, "Mike's Music Machine" with all sorts of special effect lighting. I did that part time for almost 20 years. I did very little singing and playing on my guitar during that time period. I have always had a competitive spirit in what ever I did. My discovering the mountain dulcimer in the spring of 1995 was a life changing event for me. The dulcimer, which comes from the Zither category of instruments, completely fascinated me from the first day. I will explain that special first day in my next post.