Although he enjoyed playing with his father, Patterson grew bored with the instrument after a year and began tampering with the banjo, attempting to attach a pickup to the head and run it through a guitar amplifier owned by a friend from school.
He played in and out of local bands until he graduated from Athol High School in 1983 and attended Berklee College of Music on scholarship at the age of 17.
Upon leaving Berklee at the end of summer 1983, Patterson resumed playing around Massachusetts, teaching guitar lessons in local music stores and privately.
Patterson's musical voyage took a serious turn as he discovered a wide range of jazz styles that would forever alter his musical course: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Charlie Christian, Jim Hall, and Wes Montgomery were beacons of inspiration which resulted in his dedication to studying with Marquis on guitar.
At this time, Patterson began experimenting with a broad range of songwriting material, having also been heavily influenced by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and the Benny Goodman Sextet.
While there, Patterson worked full-time during the night shift as a security guard on Sunset Boulevard and would attend college in the daytime.
Upon completion at Grove, he returned to Massachusetts, continued his private studies with Marquis, and began playing around the state in various jazz ensembles he led.
He played some live gigs occasionally with friends he had met through Grove, but his priority was to build a small studio and begin producing his own music to get composing work.
He landed a job as a production assistant at the animated television show, Alvin and the Chipmunks, where, in 1991, he sold his first song for one of the albums of the series.
[1] Among several things, Patterson wrote a series of featured big band songs in the style of Frank Sinatra for the episode, "Ol' Blue Nose" directed by Steve Loter and sung by Billy West.
Patterson has also written and produced a number of songs for artists including Seth MacFarlane, Zac Efron, 50 Cent, Matthew Morrison, RZA, Ke$ha, Patrick Stump, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, and many more.
Patterson himself guest starred as a pubescent Theodore in the Robot Chicken episode "Crushed by a Steamroller on My 53rd Birthday" on Adult Swim.