Ralph In The Rye

"A Song...simply a Frame of an Emotion, a Picture of an Idea"
Ralph Salati

VOICES
"I don't wanna be here, 'cause of my
suffering, 'cause of my illness.
Only love is worth having, only
love is what matters, loving every
people on equal terms. "
"You've got to know who you're
dealin' with because, like a stranger,
a-heh, just might come in through
here with a gun... and then, what
would you do? (Heh.)"
"Everything is immaterial..."
"'n' you know that reality is immaterial."
"This is not reality..."
[ from the album " Awake" - 1994 - by Dream Theater - (reading from the book "Cultural Revolution")]What U should Know About Me....

Hi everybody, here’s Ralph, and welcome to my Stringdom.
I first saw the light in the spring of 1987. I lived the first sad years of my life in southern Italy, belonging to a poor, poor family... Oops...That’s another story!
I spent my childhood years listening to some of the greatest bands ever to rock the earth, including Pink Floyd, Queen, Iron Maiden, Guns 'n' Roses and Mike Oldfield. During that period, I developed my need to learn to play the guitar.
At the age of 11, I moved to Milan, and I had the opportunity to start playing guitar in a more focused way. After a few months of self-taught learning, I began my odyssey among a sea of teachers of the Milan musical scene. To name a few of these: Michele Quaini, Roberto Fazari, Tony DeGruttola, and Sergio Ghiglioni. At the age of 15 I also had a few lessons of classical guitar with Vito Paradiso.
At 16, I decided to attend larger music schools to obtain a diploma. I graduated from NAM music school in Milan with exceptional marks on the first level exam. In 2006 I started at CPM, famous music school by Franco Mussida of PFM, from the second year. There, I had several teachers, including Tony Degruttola, Michele Quaini, Luca Colombo, Antonio Cordaro, Pietro Nobile, Luca Ballabio.
I graduated in guitar in 2008 with a mark of 9.5 out of 10.
I also participated in many clinics throughout the years 2002 and onwards. Some clinics worth noting include: John Petrucci (2002), Jennifer Batten (2002), Stu Hamm (2003), Billy Sheehan (2004), Kiko Loureiro (2005/2006), Greg Howe (2006), Frank Gambale and Maurizio Colonna (2007), Doug Doppler (2007) and Andy Timmons (2007).
During these years I played in different bands, ranging in styles from progressive rock and metal to thrash and pop rock.
At this time, my greatest gig is with DESTRAGE. After an audition, I joined the band at the beginning of 2007. I entered with them in studio to record our first album “Urban Being”. The album was released in Japan in November 2007 under the Japanese label Howling Bull. We are now attempting to record our second album, that will be released in 2009.