I'm STILL Pissed About This

there's something that's been on my mind

over the past couple weeks and I keep

thinking I'm going to make a video about

this and it's kind of related to some

videos I made really early in my channel

I'm talking nine years ago or so my son

Dylan and a bunch of his friends were

hanging out this is probably two weeks

ago or so he had three of his friends

they're all 11th graders and they were

talking about college and they were

getting ready to take the SS and I'm

sitting there eating dinner with them

and they said do you remember what you

got in the SAT and I said yeah I got

like 880 and they said what that's it

and I said yeah I was a bad student but

I remembered that I had a gig the night

before and I was out till 3:00 a.m. or

so CU I remember very specifically going

into the SATs and being literally

falling asleep when I was taking them

but as I've said on this channel before

I was a bad student in high school as a

matter of fact my GPA was about 1.8 I

mean really bad my senior year of high

school

everybody starts talking about what

they're going to do the next year

they're going to go to college they're

going to go to trade school whatever it

was this is back in 1979 in the fall of

79 I'm graduated in Spring of 80 so

people are asking me what are you going

to do at the beginning of the year you

go to your guidance counselor and you

talk to them and my guidance counselor

Mr croll said here's your

SATs that's pretty bad uh your GPA no

there's no way with a 1.8 that you're

going to be able to get into any

colleges I was completely deflated so I

basically just was sleepwalking through

that first half of my senior year

everybody's making plans people are

getting into colleges they're all

talking about that what are you going to

do Rick oh I don't really know my

parents never asked me anything then

comes around to to January and some

people that were in the music program

were saying oh we're going to go

audition some people were going to go

audition at Fredonia State some people

are going to go audition at pot Stam

these are Sunni schools in New York

state and some people at IA College

Oberlin different universities music

schools things like that we're going to

audition so a couple people that were

auditioning at fonan Ithaca had the

brochures so I got the brochures from

them and I look up okay here's the dates

that they're going to do auditions and

here are the requirements now I was

playing bass in the orchestra and

everything but I wanted to audition on

guitar so I was like okay I'm going to

audition for guitar so I go to my guitar

teacher at the local music store Glenn

and I was like hey hey can you teach me

these classical guitar pieces now we

didn't really read the things carefully

cuz it said you need to learn a piece

from three different style periods three

different style periods would be like

Baroque Classical Renaissance or Baroque

classical romantic or romantic classical

20th century whatever three different

style periods and then you had to learn

these things called the sovia scales

it's Andre sovia one of the greatest

classical guitarists of all time he had

a way to play major and minor scale a

certain finger patterns up and down the

neck three octave major minor scales my

teacher Glenn didn't know this stuff he

didn't know what the scovia scales were

so he went in though and grabbed a Mel

Bay book that had some BO pieces in it

Prelude and D Minor there was a Fugue

that was in a minor I think it was

originally in G minor and stuff so Glenn

starts teaching me these things and I

got this Guild classical guitar which I

still have I bought it from him I'm

playing it on this leg and everything he

didn't really know how to teach

classical guitar but I'm learning the

notes and stuff and so I learned three

pieces one of them actually I learned

off a record a scarlotti piece and I go

in I do my auditions and the first one

was at fonia State the next one was a

week later at itha college and if you go

back there's a video called fortunes of

hard work if you want to see one of my

early videos that's color graded really

badly and looks really green you can go

and watch that and that tells you the

story of my disastrous auditions but

needless to say I didn't get into either

school for music I got rejected from

both of them I got got the letters on

the same day I hid them from my family

didn't show them to my parents but I had

a letter from the track coach at

Fredonia state which was the number one

division three School in the country and

it said if you come in here run on the

track team you can get in but you have

to be a different major I picked history

I was like I want to just get in the

music program I went to the guitar

teacher Joanne castalano she was like no

I don't have time for you to teach you

so then I'm like what am I going to do I

can't get into fonia so I want to re

audition at itha college but now I know

that there are requirements and I talked

to this kid in my dorm who I mentioned

the story before Phil Sasso and Phil

taught me five different pieces he was

an amazing classical guitarist and he

taught me the sovia scales and five

weeks into my first semester I went back

to itha college to audition in front of

Steve Brown who rejected me six months

before and didn't remember me re

auditioned and I got in so I transferred

after my first semester so January of

1981 I went to itha college as a guitar

major and on the first day I went to the

to the bass teacher Henry Newbert who

just passed away two weeks ago who was a

great guy and he ran the music Ed

program and I was like you know I played

bass in my high school orchestra I was

first chair and I'd like to play bass in

the orchestra he's like well play me

something so I pick up his bass I play

something like why aren't you a bass

major I was like I don't know could I be

he goes yes you should do that you

should definitely get a music Ed degree

that's way better than getting a jazz

studies degree so I was like okay so I

went and I told Steve that I was going

to do music Ed and be a bass major and

Steve was like okay so I took guitar

lessons jazz guitar lessons from Steve

but I was a bass major I finish my

degree at Ithaca I go to New England

Conservatory I get my Master's Degree in

jazz guitar so my undergrad in Bass

Masters in jazz guitar and in the last

semester I was getting my uh my degree

finishing my degree at New England I was

on a break they needed a substitute

teacher at Fairport High School to teach

Orchestra so I went in and subbed and

conducted the orchestra well who do I

run into there in the hallway during the

day I run into Mr croll the guidance

counselor he's like what are you doing

here Mr Bato he remembered me my brother

John had just graduated the year before

I was like I'm actually substitute

teaching the orchestra this week and he

said really I said yeah I'm actually

finishing my master's degree do you

remember when you told me I'd never get

into college because of my SATs or my

GPA well not only did I get into my

undergrad but I I'm finishing my

Master's Degree right now and he said

good for you and smiled he was psyched I

mean to him he's just looking at these

things he knows he's like well the

chances of me getting in are basically

zero but they weren't zero the chances

of getting in were

100% because I did get in and I didn't

let them Define me I didn't let him

Define me and it all comes back to what

my mom used to say every time I got a

bad grade starting when I was in second

grade you start seeing the things Rick

does not live work up to Ability all

this kind of stuff I really had some

type of add or ADHD I'm sure of it cuz I

could never Focus focus on things as you

can probably tell by the way I make my

videos and my mom was like the teachers

don't know how to teach you you're

smarter than they are and every time I

got a bad report card she would say that

and I believed it at least I wanted to

believe it and looking back at it now

Mom you were right my mom's been gone

now

for about 9 years and my mom was so

important to me I remember she used to

say to me you know I never really like

school either I never did well in school

and I still think about that all the

time so when I'm talking to Dylan and

his friends I told them this story and

they were laughing at it right because I

was such a bad student but it didn't

matter all that matters is that you're

determined to do something and if you

really want something bad enough you can

do it you just got a work hard love know

your thoughts leave a comment thanks for

watching