“Telephone Line”

– Electric Light Orchestra

In 2001, the first wave of the “.com” era was imploding, crashing under the weight of its overly optimistic expectations. Everyone knew the internet was the next big thing and was looking to stake a claim in the digital frontier. Unfortunately, no one was sure where or how to start digging to find the gold. Like many others, the dot-com business I was managing turned into a dot-bomb, and it was time for me to start looking for another corporate position.

Soon after I’d started that search, terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center. The job prospects I was pursuing dried up. It was tough enough being a middle-aged middle manager, and the tragedy of 911 locked up the hiring process for many businesses. How could anyone plan for the future when the whole world had just turned upside down?

I knew I couldn’t sit around and wait for a job to find me. Then a crazy idea popped into my head.I’ve been playing and teaching guitar since college, one or two students at a time plus occasional group lessons. Maybe this could be turned into a business. My wife, Connie, and I discussed it. She had a good job, the kids were grown and doing well. Let’s give it a try for a year.

For starters, I began to write down everything I wish I had known when I first started playing the guitar. I checked out several book/music stores to see what other instructors were teaching. Though I was familiar with most of the available instructional material, there is always something new coming out. I didn’t find anything along the lines of the approach I had in mind. I went home, closed the curtains, quit answering the phone, and began to write.

Aside from a handful of regular students and coffeehouse/bookstore gigging, the only thing I did during this time was write and rewrite. In the back of my mind was a lingering question: Is music a frivolous human pursuit, or is it something substantial enough to build into a career? Looming large was the stereotype of the guy who thinks he’s the next James Taylor/Eric Clapton/Neil Young/Bob Dylan but who never makes it beyond the local circuit.

Six weeks later, I emerged from my self-imposed isolation withFoundations for Great Guitar Playing completed. It was my very own spiral-bound book with two audio CDs included.

Around this same time, I received a call fromBusiness First, the local business newspaper. They were working on an article called “Sitting it Out,” telling the stories of professionals from tech industries who had lost jobs thanks to the bursting of the .com bubble. My guitar and I got a decent-size picture on the front page of the Local section. Nice, but I would have preferred being on “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone.’”

One day while writing, studying, practicing, and teaching, I received a phone call from a friend. Becky told me she was helping to put together a roster of musicians who would be willing to play music at a hospital in downtown Columbus. Each person would play in the hallways of the cancer floor from 10:00 to 11:00 AM on Tuesday mornings. With eight musicians in the rotation, each of us would only need to do this once every two months.

“That sounds like a good thing. Let me check my calendar.” (As if I needed to look. My morning hours were as empty as a frozen farm field in winter.) “Yes, I’m available, but only until I get back into the corporate world, which may be very soon.”

I played once every other month at the hospital for two years. Then one day, one of the housekeeping ladies said, “It sure is good to hear you.”

“Thanks, but you have live music e