Claim: Frank Zappa was a self-taught composer.

Frank Vincent Zappa -LRB- December 21 , 1940 -- December 4 , 1993 -RRB- was an American musician , activist and filmmaker . His work was characterized by nonconformity , free-form improvisation , sound experiments , musical virtuosity , and satire of American culture . In a career spanning more than 30 years , Zappa composed rock , pop , jazz , jazz fusion , orchestral and musique concrète works , and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist . Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos , and designed album covers . He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse rock musicians of his generation .   As a self-taught composer and performer , Zappa 's diverse musical influences led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize . While in his teens , he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical composers such as Edgard Varèse , Igor Stravinsky , and Anton Webern , along with 1950s rhythm and blues and doo-wop music . He began writing classical music in high school , while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands ; later switching to electric guitar . His 1966 debut album with the Mothers of Invention , Freak Out ! , combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages . He continued this eclectic and experimental approach , irrespective of whether the fundamental format was rock , jazz or classical .   Zappa 's output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed `` Project/Object '' , with numerous musical phrases , ideas , and characters reappearing across his albums . His lyrics reflected his iconoclastic views of established social and political processes , structures and movements , often humorously so . He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion , and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech , self-education , political participation and the abolition of censorship . Unlike many other rock musicians of his era , he personally disapproved of and seldom used drugs , but supported their decriminalization and regulation .   During Zappa 's lifetime , he was a highly productive and prolific artist , earning widespread acclaim from critics and fellow musicians . He had some commercial success , particularly in Europe , and worked as an independent artist for most of his career . He remains a major influence on musicians and composers . His honors include an induction into the 1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the 1997 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award . In 2000 , he was ranked number 36 on VH1 's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock . In 2004 , Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at number 71 on its list of the `` 100 Greatest Artists of All Time '' , and in 2011 at number 22 on its list of the `` 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time '' .