Name - Matt E. Steidle

Age - 23

Hometown - Waynesboro, Va

I was born in Charlottesville, Va. in 1977, and I lived in a small town called Troy, Va. until I was 3. Then I moved to Waynesboro Va., and lived there until I was 19, at that time I moved to Radford, Va. and I've been here for about 4 years. I started playing music at 6 years old originally as a pianist, but when I got to be around 8 or 9 my interest in piano declined and I began the guitar. My piano teacher used to always get mad at me for taking anything she taught me and making it my own. I still have a tendency to do that. I've takin' most of my technique I've learned in college and applied it to what I'm doing now. It makes me more creative. I'm definitely a little more discipline now so that's good. I started playing the guitar roughly between the ages of 9 and 10, by taking lessons from a man named Rob Otis. He got me through the basics and I stopped taking lessons shortly after I got my first electric guitar. I didn't really start writing original music until I was 15 or 16, I played whatever I could to learn. I got into my first band at 16 mainly playing acoustic music. When I was 17 I went back to Rob and asked him to teach me as many different jazz and blues progressions as he could. I went with that for a while, then went back and at 19 just before I transferred to Radford to learn some music theory. I started studying classical guitar in the fall of 97' with Dr. Robert Trent. I also have made it through four years of theory and Ear Training, learning how to sing different scales, which helped with my guitar scales and progressions. I also am in the Music Technology degree program, which I've learned how to use many different computer programs dealing with music and MIDI setups. I've been learning for the past two years how to put music to film and hope to pursue a career in this field. One of my main goals is to work with Papa Funk as long as the times will let me, but first I need to graduate!