User:Firewiki/David Belknap

David Arthur Belknap (Born 20 January 1974) is an American rock guitarist, and minister. He has contributed to the rise of numerous musicians who play a variety of instruments.

As early as the age of 2, David could be found dancing to the rhythm of whatever music his father piped into the headphones placed on young David's head. At age 4, an old upright piano was given to the family. He could be heard most days "playing a melody and not just smashing the keys".

By age 5, David had given his artistic abilities toward the medium of ink and paper. Though he started by drawing his own renderings of super heroes, he went on to create his very own heroes and small comic books. By age 7, David was courted back into the arena of music. His first grade music instructor, William Hayes, saw the potential of musical abilities when he had all the students write out music just to see what kids would create with out music theory knowledge. David ended up writing the melody to "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby". Then a lay member of the church he grew up in heard him sing. David made his debut in a Christmas pageant and was called upon frequently from that time to do "special music" during Sunday morning services.

At age 11, David took interest in his first stringed instrument, a viola. He found that being able to play a harmonic part that also carried the rhythm was far more satisfying than "killing the cat every night at home". David continued to play Viola for school and public events until a week at an orchestra camp gave him more insight into the ability of his instrument than what his instructor taught him at school. Annoyed by this discovery, and a burgeoning desire to weight lift, David dropped orchestra in favor of weights and conditioning classes in junior high school.

It was shortly after this events transpired that his parents agreed to trade in the viola for his first electric guitar, a Peavey Tracer. This was accompanied by a small Peavey Rage amplifier, a Boss guitar tuner, and a Peavey effects pedal. This combination confirmed to David that the guitar could be the paintbrush, and that effects like chorus, delay, flange and reverb were colors on his sonic palette. At this same time David Hunt, a good friend from grade school and orchestra, got his first drum set. The two Davids would jam and make recordings of their efforts.

David would go on to discover the world of musical equipment, which David studied right along with his playing the guitar. 6 months after being given the guitar by his parents, he traded it in at a local music shop toward a more advanced edition of the same brand and model, using his allowance to make the weekly payments. By the end of 1989, he acquired an Ampeg SS-70C combo amplifier from another high school guitar player, Matt Foresman, who was upgrading his own guitar rig.

At this time, David was given lessons to help progress his abilities of guitar playing. The lessons ended after 8 sessions when he asked his instructor to teach him how to play Black Dog by Led Zeppelin. The teacher said told David it was not a song someone of his beginning skill could play easily. Determined, David returned the following week to his instructor, able to play the song note for note.