Trent Schmick

I got my first guitar for Christmas in 6th grade.  It was one of those drugstore acoustic guitars with the really high action.    I couldn’t even fret the thing.  I remember promptly breaking the low E string!  I started lessons two years later and every week I’d take the bus downtown to this old family music store, where I’d pay their guitar teacher to yell at me.  It’s funny, I still remember that “smell” when I opened the door and walked down the aisle and saw the most beautiful electric guitars hanging on the walls as I marched to the back of the store with my cheap drugstore guitar only to sit and watch the 8 year old virtuoso finish up his lesson.  His mom and I were so proud of him.  These warm feelings would quickly fade halfway through my lesson.  On my way out I’d look at those guitars on the wall again and think someday, I’m going to play something nicer and more inspiring than the “Mary Had a Little Lamb” songs he was making me play.  This torturous routine lasted about a year before we mutually agreed I was wasting his time. 

I basically just taught myself how to play guitar but I didn’t write many songs till much later in life, but I did write a lot of poetry.  When I turned 17, I bought a cheap electric guitar and never looked back.  I was in a few garage bands that never really got out of the garage.  Currently, my focus is on songwriting. My goal is to continue to record some of the 100+ songs I've written  over the years.

In case you’re wondering what ever happened to that old drugstore guitar… well I’m not exactly sure.  After high school, my parents moved west so I stayed in Wisconsin and went to college in Madison.  I left that guitar in my bedroom closet with a note on it that read, “this guitar saved my life, please take good care of it.”  I hope someone did.