Who knows what in my personality has driven my connection with this instrument.

I do know that i’ve been obsessed with it since I first picked up my father’s guitar when I was about 11. There is no one thing that makes a guitar player but how can we ignore their common quirks.

They tend to be a bit unusual. They tend to come to the instrument under the power of their own volition. They tend to want to express themselves but are unsure of how best to do so. They tend to wish they were the soloist while rejoicing in the companionship of making music with others. They hate taking direction but desperately wish to know what to do. They often fall short of expectations and yet surprise with their ingenuity.

My first guitar teacher was my father. I had lessons on the piano for years and it was self evident that it was not going to be a vehicle for me to achieve great success, despite the patience of my teacher. I cannot speak to my innate talent for the guitar but it definitely made sense to me in a way other instruments did not. A local youth centre had group-guitar lessons on Saturdays. I went for about a year before the teacher felt he no longer could accept the €5 euro per class fee in good conscience. To this day this was the single-most encouraging moment in my musical career and the mark of a very decent man.

After working away on my own for a while I auditioned for the College of Music in Dublin. My teacher there, Michael O’Toole, is widely known as the kindest man in the guitar world. He remained my teacher until I finished my degree. Mick was most definitely the reason I became a professional guitarist. I think he understood that unlike many young players, I never thought I was the greatest but that I was a romantic optimist and that I believed I could always get better with time and persistance.

I have never been what you would call a particularly successful guitarist, per se. Competitions were not my friend. Exams I found daunting and performance anxiety is and will always be an unwelcome presence in my life, as it is for many musicians. I have had many students who have much more natural aptitude than I have as well as ones who are more intelligent, more affable, have better memories and nimbler fingers.

When I went to the US to study with Scott Tennant, I remained very rough around the edges. Many of my classmates were very obviously more refined and simply outgunned me. Scott is in many ways the polar opposite of what I am as a musician. His talents were discovered and lauded early in life. He is a true virtuoso in that his playing has impacted massively on the subsequent generation and is a development on what came before. No guitarist that I am aware of doesn’t at the very least respect him. He is beloved by musicians and audiences the world over.

However if there is one thing that I believe we do share it is a common sensitivity. Scott’s incredible technique is a smokescreen for a deep musicality that defies a logical understanding. It is beautiful, intuitive and incredibly human. Almost a direct translation of his warm personality. I cannot claim the same technical facility but I do feel the guitar has a similar kinship with my inner voice.

At my absolute best I think my music communicates the various facets of my own personality. It’s porous. I hear in it my upbringing, my odd sense of humour, the influence of relationships with family and friends as well as everything else that is a part of my makeup that I cannot tease apart from the whole. As a sum of my parts, the guitar has been the only constant in my musical career. It does not define my output but it is a lens through which it filters. My spirit animal in the corner.