well, where do i start...
today was the first day back from the 2 week end-of-term holidays. back to school for term 2 of 2007.
so i got to school and then just after roll call as i was walking to class a friend of mine came up and said "dude, ceeda died last friday." (his name was tacteem proceeda, but his original name was matthew anderson, he had to change it for legal reasons). and he was 33 years old.
at first i just said "ahah yeah, funny." but then he said "no, dude, i'm serious..." and that was that.
he died of an aneurysm in his brain. he was sitting on the floor of his house with his 3 and 7 year old boys drawing pictures and he got up to go to the toilet and didn't make it to the door, he just collapsed and died right there.
his wife left him just a few weeks before for some reason.
he was such a damn nice guy but he had such bad luck since i've known him. his car got stolen, then damaged in a storm, then one of his vintage guitars was wrecked in a flooding accident and then his wife left him.
i started going to him about a year ago. back then, i thought playing "smells like teen spirit" was cool. he introduced me to pentatonic scales, major and minor chords, and eventually modes.
if it wasn't for him i'd still be sitting in my room playing "smells like teen spirit" to myself, instead of playing improvised jams with my friends infront of audiences. i truly owe this guy my whole guitar career (i've been playing for nearly 2 years).
this guy really did change my life. he introduced me to hendrix, led zeppelin, pink floyd and many other great bands. he taught me invaluable lessons: work hard at your skill, perservere and have fun.
he was literally the most interesting person i've ever met. he was eccentric, happy and always completely nuts, which was so awesome.
his funeral is on this friday or saturday and if all his students came, there'd be over 90 kids there.
the worse thing about it i guess, is that it's such a loss of a great musician. he invented his own ways of teaching, taught the most important things, didn't just teach you songs. he really knew music, and had a deep respect for it.
the worst thing is losing such a great source of huge knowledge of theory and about music in general. he knew every musician in the city.
what he did do though, was plant some very, very important seeds in my mind. he's definately set me on my way to become a great musician.
if i ever become famous or anything and anyone asks my how i started playing guitar i'd say "if it wasn't for ceeda i wouldn't be here."
well, that's it i guess...
thanks ceeda for all the information, fun and great times, you really were an awesome person.
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Ceeda
