Ryan Cr.-

Ever since I was a kid I grew up singing and music was a huge part of my life. My parents raised me around music and my parents friends were active musician, songwriters and artists. My Mom would always take me to the ballet and the symphony and concerts at music venues around Arizona. I started my music life as a singer and would sing through the house and karaoke and at church, basically any chance I got. When I was 7 my Nana bought me a snare drum and I loved it so I started off with a solid rhythmic basis. At a young age I showed promise in music class especially with rhythm and harmony so my music teacher recommended I sing for the phoenix boys choir. I started reading music in Band class when I was in 5th grade and I played trumpet always receiving first chair and solos. I wanted to get back into singing but still play an instrument so I started playing guitar at age 11. I started out playing basic chords and singing songs by Neil Young and Grateful Dead and was under the instruction of my parents friends. One day my moms friend showed me how to play scales on the guitar so I began to teach myself how all the scales wove together in all the different patterns and keys on the guitar. I was hooked. I practiced probably 4 hours a day self taught until by a year later I was practically a child prodigy. I had an affinity for improvisation and learning songs by ear. I could learn songs just by watching peoples hands and I could solo over just about anything. I started learning songs from the greats by ear like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, and Jimmy Page. It wasn't long after that where I started writing my own music on the guitar mostly instrumentals until when I got to high school and joined a band as a singer/guitarist and started writing songs with lyrics and complex arrangements. My high school bands first show was a battle of the bands which we won. Our band before even graduating went on to play shows all around the state at multiple different professional venues. At the time our band was signed to my friend Donald Seago's label; Burn Records L.L.C and I was active as a studio musician for the labels different projects recording multiple demos and albums for the different groups along with playing live for shows that the label booked.