At the Flamingo Cantina

Who am I?

Well my parents call me Anthony Pitt but many know me as Twinky P. I am 25 years old and I graduated from Houston Community College with an Associates Degree in Recording Engineering. A week after I graduated I moved to Austin, Texas and got a job with Swank Audio Visuals where I was doing Hotel A/V. I was in charge of everything from hooking up a TV for a meeting to setting up the stage, video, sound, and lights for an Elton John Concert.

I began taking piano lessons very early on at the age of 7. I only played for a year because my focus at the time was soccer. Luckily when I was in 7th grade I made 2 new friends that played guitar and it re sparked my interest in music. I have been playing guitar and bass ever since(13yrs). My first band was the same year and I even jumped off my amp in my very first show.

Through out the years I've been in many bands. In most of them I've played bass but there were 2 bands where I played Lead and Rhythm guitar. I was the songwriter in both of these groups. I was also asked to perform the National Anthem on guitar at Buzzfest XI and XII at the Woodlands Pavilion in Houston for 94.5 The buzz.

I was lucky enough to know at an early age that music was what I wanted to do in life. I worked with Swank Audio Visuals for 2 years until embarking on my first tour with Full Service. Since then the band has been priority number 1 and teaching guitar and bass gives me the time and flexability to focus on the band.

Styles
When I first picked up the guitar I was very interested in playing alternative and heavy metal like nirvana and metallica. As I got a little older and started playing with different musicians I began to get into classic rock, blues, and some Jam bands. It was then when I was first introduced to improvisation and that's when playing guitar got exciting. Since then I've been in bands that played rock to blues to metal to jam to reggae. I have also been a fan of Latin music because of my mother being from Colombia.

As a teacher I am more focused on keeping the guitar and bass fun for beginners and not to overwhelm them with reading music and theory until they are comfortable with just playing first. For intermediate players learning scales, composition, arrangements, and basic theory would be the goal, but still at a comfortable level.

Influences

Guitar- Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Dimebag Darrell(Pantera) Bonesaw, Tom Morello(Rage Against the Machine), Marty Friedman and DavenMustaine(Megadeth), Chris Cornell(Soundgarden), Eddie Van Halen, Trey Anistacio(Phish), Roger Stevens and Christopher Thorn(Blind Melon), Carlos Santana, Jimmy Page, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez(The Mars Volta)
Bass- Les Claypool(Primus), Victor Wooten, P-Nut(311), Ryan Martinie(Mudvayne), Cliff Burton(Metallica), Quentin Berry(Ugli Stick), Mike Gordon(Phish), Tim Commerford(Rage Against the Machine), and John Paul Jones(Led Zeppelin)