Keith Baim Excellence in Guitar Composition Endowment

This scholarship will provide support to students who play the guitar and compose music demonstrating outstanding instrumentation, conveyance and depth of emotion, immersion of the listener experience, and/or general artistry.

If you do not meet all of these requirements in a given term, you may lose your scholarship eligibility and your scholarship may be canceled.

Requirements:

• Recipient(s) must be a junior, senior, or graduate student.
• Recipient(s) must be pursuing one of the following majors:
  o Music
  o Music composition
  o Jazz studies
  o Music education
  o Music performance
• OR participate in one or more of the following:
  o Perform in an SDSU ensemble
  o Participate in at least one SDSU guitar course
• Recipient(s) must play the guitar and compose music for the guitar.
• Recipient(s) may be contacted by the committee at a later date to ask if they would like to share their video with the donor.
• Graduate students are not required to be enrolled full-time.
• Undergraduate students are not required to be enrolled full-time.

Donor Profile
Hello guitarists and composers who are interested in the Keith Baim Excellence in Guitar Composition scholarship.

Your guitar will almost certainly be your lifelong companion, confidant, and friend, accompanying you through all your choices and life events. It will come with you to all the places you reside and many you visit, and it will likely make everything better. For some musicians, lucky enough, it will mean a career centered around music: practicing, composing, and performing—maybe even teaching the next generation.

Playing and composing are special gifts that are somehow entirely your own but also become exponentially better when shared with other musicians and appreciators. Playing guitar can and will do something else just as valuable—maybe more valuable. It can bring some of the most memorable and important people into your life, some of whom you would not have met if it weren’t for your guitar. They may be people you end up admiring more than any others in this life. They may become the friends you enjoy being around the most and eventually miss the most when they are gone.

I feel unbelievably lucky to have taken guitar lessons from Randy Rhoads long ago. His star burned brightly, but briefly. I knew him just before he gained fame with Ozzy, and his best years as a player and songwriter were yet to come. He was the most beautiful soul to be around, who willingly shared his talent and knowledge, all while being funny and kind and making you want to be a better player. My weekly lessons with him were my favorite part of my high school years.

I’ve met incredible players and people since, like Steve Morse, Steve Lukather, Laurence Juber, and Peppino D’Agostino (Google them). I’ve also been lucky enough to meet titans of the music world like Sterling Ball of Ernie Ball Inc. He was another role model who I always watched give of himself, improving many musicians’ lives through opportunities and sponsorship, while making fine musical instruments that many play, and the strings almost everyone uses.

Even a chance encounter with banjo player extraordinaire Bela Fleck, who once held an elevator door open for me in Vegas while on my way to see him in concert, just a week after my mother passed away. A moment for me, just when I needed it, that lifted a world of grief as we chatted all the way to the concert venue. I also met the CEO of Guitar Center, who ended up selling me one of my most cherished and stunningly beautiful quilted Music Man guitars in the early 2000s. I also attended a Lakers game with the main guitar buyer at Guitar Center during the Shaq-Kobe years.

Guitar was just a side hustle for me in my adult years, playing the occasional bar or restaurant gig and composing mostly finger-style instrumental pieces. But how fortunate I felt just to be a guitar player and perform a couple of times a month.

I have no doubt that all of you will meet and impress many wonderful people along your own journey through your love of music and passion for playing. So, wherever your guitar and music take you, just know there will always be situations, individuals, and moods that will inspire you in unexpected and profound ways—many of which you will remember forever.

My hope is that applying for this scholarship might be one of those inspirational moments. As the world of music, musicians, and memories unfolds throughout your lifetime, you discover new ways music shapes your experiences.

Good luck, and all the best,
Keith Baim