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Mike Strausbaugh

“Kickass 80s Metal Kid-turned-College Music Professor with (3) Master's of Music, (2) Cats, and (1) TED Talk about Life, Music and Death”

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About Me

Howdy, Stranger!


My name is Mike Strausbaugh, and I'm really happy to be here today.


And by 'here,' I mean 'above ground,' let alone living an amazing life as a self-proclaimed Muse, someone who teaches and plays and writes and thinks and talks about Music and Guitar a lot.


My resume says I'm a 53-year-old, GenX, College Music Professor, Award-Winning Composer / Guitarist, and TEDx Speaker with 30 years of teaching experience and three Masters of Music in Music Composition, Jazz Studies, and Classical Guitar. Hell, I even sang Barbershop for a few years.


My friends will tell you I'm a witty and affable legit Last Name Dude and shameless ‘look at me!’ performer who grew up on Star Wars, D&D, WWE, Monty Python, and 80s Thrash Metal. I’m also one of those types who really enjoyed school, and I’m an absolute sucker for History.


My TED Talk will tell you that I’m a Badass Survivor who fought tooth-and-nail to stay alive through a 10-year Medical Nightmare before finally being diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Common Variable Immunodeficiency.


Technically it was longer than that, but I just count the 3,896 days between May 11th, 1996, and January 8th, 2007.


Gosh, Mike, that's pretty specific!


Yup; May 11th, 1996, was the first time I went into the hospital with very little chance of coming out. Over the next 10+ years, there would be seven more.


I was 24 years old, and had graduated with my Bachelor's Degree in Classical Guitar exactly one week before. Nine years before that, as a 15-year-old kid in 1987, Metallica and my Guitar saved my life, then Music became Life. By the time I was 28, I could no longer play the Guitar, and my connection with Music was dead.


On January 8th, 2007, I received my diagnosis and one shiny Brand New Life. A literal do-over. Go, Strausbaugh!


Somehow, I'd survived to the age of 36, and while my body was pretty tired and broken, my Spirit sure as fuck wasn't, and frankly, that's what I'm most proud of.


All I could think about was renewing my Life and reconnecting my Spirit with Music and the Guitar.


One year later, in June of 2008, I signed up for one summer Music class at the University of Missouri, and over the next 5 years, I relearned how to play the Guitar while earning three Masters degrees in Music.


I did this while working 50 hours a week, going to school full-time, commuting 100 miles a day, going through a divorce, and being homeless for a while.


Not too fuckin’ shabby.


I began teaching full-time again, including a brief stint at a small College in Denver (before COVID came along and ruined that BOOO)


So, yeah.. being able to just hold my Guitar without pain, let alone being able to play it, will never cease to fill me with Peace and Joy and Gratitude.


Just being impossibly, wonderfully alive is an impossible Gift.


Being able to teach Music and Guitar, being able to just talk about them, think about them, laugh and cry with them?


Fuhgeddaboutit.


And while some of the details about my Story are pretty grim (cuz things like Sepsis and Viral Encephalitis and Hemolytic Anemia and HUNDREDS of respiratory infections suuuuuck)...


I’m NOT. I’m a pretty smiley dude, and I tend to make people laugh.


I really am happy as Hell to be here, and I wanna talk with you!


Let's talk about:

  • ALL the Music stuff, from the 11th Century to right now, every genre; Composition, Theory, History, etc.,
  • anything Guitar (or literally any other instruments),
  • The fragility of Life, the certainty of Death, and what Music looks like from the other side after having lost it,
  • GenX stuff,
  • Comedy


I’m a legitimate Expert on much of it, and enthusiastic about all of it.


Let’s do this!

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