Why did you start playing?

Just thought this would be an interesting thread to see why other people started learning guitar. What is your story?

How old were you? What made you first pick up a guitar with the aim to seriously learn? And what did you want to accomplish when you set out?

For me I bought my first guitar when I was 18 from a pawn shop while I was in my first year at university. To be honest I bought it with a mild intention to learn but I never did because it was such a bad guitar. The moment I decided that I had to learn seriously was at a party 2 years ago when I was drunk with my friends listening to Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Not that I hadn't heard it before but this time Frusciante's guitar just stuck with me and it made me want to be able to play. I went travelling that year and have never been in one place long enough to learn until last month when I came home. First purchace was a good all solid acoustic and I am now into learning seriously, I am 24. I love guitar.
My aim isnt to be in a band, not that I would mind, but I would like to be able to get to a point where my fingers catch up to what I am thinking in my head. It may sound weird but I want to be able to play in the dark so I can just concentrate on the sound. I want to be decent in acoustic, electric and some day bass :)

Cheers

First time I heard the Shadows when I was 4 years old.
I used to pick up a badminton racket and pretend to play along making believe I was in the band.

yeah, but when did you start after you heard them at 4? And I bet you wanted to play Fender. My girlfriend's dad played guitar because of the Shadows and the aim of his life when he was younger was to play a Strat.

I used to and still do love Queen. I dont listen to them much now because I listened to them so much when I was younger, but they have deffinatly been a part of making me want to play, as have Guns n' Roses.

oh, and Kevin. I am learning with your lessons. Thanks!

my biggest influences where Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Paige, and Kirk Hammet when i was younger. not so much a fan of metallica as i was a fan of Kirk's early soloing...in no way was it ingenuetive, but it was a perfect pedestal to shoot for in my early days of playing lead guitar. i remember the first time i heard 'hit the lights' and the solo came on. i was blown away, and while its nothing particularly mind-blowing now, it drove me to sit at parties with my guitar and a metallica tab book, breaking my fingers trying to do his little cliche guitar licks.

When I was a kid I had a ukelele (as a toy really), then I saw Eric Clapton play when I was 8. Since then there's been nothing else I really wanted to do. Although the initial classical lessons weren't exactly what I'd had in mind, they laid a good foundation.

I wanted to play like Clapton, then I saw Eddie Van Halen, then Satriani/Vai... I guess I want to be that good... but even as I catch some of them up, all I find is more. I don't think I'd ever want to exhaust it anyway....

When I was very young.. like age 4 or 5, I have memories of my dad playing guitar. He always played a classical-style acoustic, and would play ballads and similar music. He would either whistle the melody as he played, or sometimes he would sing as well. The song I remember the most from that age is "Puff the Magic Dragon".

As one of four children in my family, I learnt to play various instruments as I grew up. I would fiddle around with the family piano but never really took any lessons. At one stage, when I was about 12, I started to learn the viola (bigger version of violin).. I think I managed to learn "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" fairly well but that's about all.

At age 15 my parents couldn't handle me living at home any more and threw me out (yes, I was an animal :D haha) and I ended up in a hostel for young people. So with a lot of time on my hands, I managed to secure myself my dad's acoustic with his permission of course. And I played.. and I played.. and I played.. for weeks and weeks. I bruised and blistered my fingers during the first few weeks but I didn't care.. I just kept playing and playing and playing..

Eventually, though I'm not sure exactly how long it took, I decided that it was time to get my own guitar. I got a very cheap electric guitar and tiny little practise amp. At that stage, I still didn't even know how to string a guitar.. I figured, at that point, that it would be a good idea to get some basic skills from a guitar teacher. So I learnt some scales and some intermediate chord shapes.. Once I could see the patterns on the fret board, I didn't really need anymore of that type of help.. and have since been self-taught.

One name---Slash. I'm 17, but grew up my whole life around stuff like the Stray Cats and Aerosmith because of my parents. I started playing just over 3 years ago. At first it was partially serious, I wanted to play, but it wasn't the most important thing. Since then, and after discovering lots of different players and developing my own style, about a year and a half ago I realized I wanted to make a living, and base my life off of playing guitar. Seeing and hearing Slash play when I was younger, and then realizing who it was, and what he was doing was when I wanted to play. The guys that made me want to do it the rest of my life were Slash, Joe Perry, Zakk Wylde and Dimebag Darrell. Those 4 guys, to me, just have everything that makes an awesome guitar player...it's never overly complicated, and it just rocks. Period.

Well i geuss i started playing cuz everyone in my famil except for one of my brothers played an instrument. My brother and my dad played and still play guitar so i decided i would go to the same teacher as my brother.

Well my mother is a singer and used to play the piano, my father plays guitar very well (they actually used to be a folk duo who toured around the north of england in the 60's), my grandfather used to play the acordian, my other grandfather used to play mandolin and the banjo as did one of my uncles and one of my other uncles used to play bagpipes in one of the Buckingham Palace guards bands. But amazingly, I was never really brought up around any of this musical talent in my family until the last year of so when my dad played some guitar for an hour or so. Still though, I thought I would be letting the side down if I didnt play. Family does rub off on you.

My mother also has a very cool story to her name. She went to an event where bands played all day until the evening when the Beatles were due to play. She was a singer in one of the bands but finished in time to get front row for the main act. This was in the early days of the Beatles when she was in her early 20's. Anyway she got spoted by Paul dancing in the front row and they asked her to go back stage half way through the act while they had a 15min break. She said she was talking to them all when Paul asked her to dance the second half of the set on top of his piano while they were playing, so she did! She said it wasnt too much of a big thing at the time because they were not really that famous at the time. She was then asked to go out with them after the show but didnt because she said George was the only really chatty one and the others were a bit quiet, especially John. My mother isnt one to get star struck at all and I reckon I think this story is way cooler than she does. My mother is deffinatly different.

Originally Posted by: rhythmWell my mother is a singer and used to play the piano, my father plays guitar very well (they actually used to be a folk duo who toured around the north of england in the 60's), my grandfather used to play the acordian, my other grandfather used to play mandolin and the banjo as did one of my uncles and one of my other uncles used to play bagpipes in one of the Buckingham Palace guards bands. But amazingly, I was never really brought up around any of this musical talent in my family until the last year of so when my dad played some guitar for an hour or so. Still though, I thought I would be letting the side down if I didnt play. Family does rub off on you.

My mother also has a very cool story to her name. She went to an event where bands played all day until the evening when the Beatles were due to play. She was a singer in one of the bands but finished in time to get front row for the main act. This was in the early days of the Beatles when she was in her early 20's. Anyway she got spoted by Paul dancing in the front row and they asked her to go back stage half way through the act while they had a 15min break. She said she was talking to them all when Paul asked her to dance the second half of the set on top of his piano while they were playing, so she did! She said it wasnt too much of a big thing at the time because they were not really that famous at the time. She was then asked to go out with them after the show but didnt because she said George was the only really chatty one and the others were a bit quiet, especially John. My mother isnt one to get star struck at all and I reckon I think this story is way cooler than she does. My mother is deffinatly different.

Great story! Sounds like you've got a pretty cool family. :)

Originally Posted by: hunter60Great story! Sounds like you've got a pretty cool family. :)

Thanks man, they are pretty normal now, well my dad isnt, but the rest of them are. They just did things a bit differently when they were younger.

Originally Posted by: rhythmThanks man, they are pretty normal now, well my dad isnt, but the rest of them are. They just did things a bit differently when they were younger.

Didn't we all? :cool:

I think I've told this story on here before, but oh well.

I started playing guitar when I was about 12 because my friend told me one day at recess that he was going to start taking lessons the following year. For some reason I hated the idea of him playing guitar and me not being able to (even though I wasn't really into music at the time), so that night I told my dad I wanted to play guitar. He plays guitar too, so he taught me a few chords, and here we are now.

Back in '68, when I bought my >first guitar<, I played every possible minute of every day.

I played when I first woke up. I played after I got home from my morning paper route before I went to school. I played when I came home for lunch. I played when I came home from school. I played before doing my homework. I played instead of doing my homework. I played until bedtime. I played after bedtime. I played until my fingers bled. I played until I had calouses over blood blisters on my fingertips....



... 39 years later, I play maybe 4 hours a week, but I still love it! :D

Jimmy Page.

I was 13, riding on the way to somewhere (I think it was a ball game) and I heard Pantera's cover of "hole in the sky" on the radio. Ever since then I wanted to play like Dimebag but I enjoy diversifying and playing many other styles and genres (I.E. its not a Dimebag obsession).

I played trumpet for years and always had a respect and love for jazz music. Players like Mclaughlin and Di Meola are actually what got me interested and Frank Zappa sealed the deal and I started playing.

[QUOTE=rhythm]yeah, but when did you start after you heard them at 4? And I bet you wanted to play Fender. My girlfriend's dad played guitar because of the Shadows and the aim of his life when he was younger was to play a Strat.

Actually.... and don't repeat this to anybody, but my next experience was the Partridge Family.
Seriously.. I was a Partridge Family fanatic and used to go to the local Woolworths store, pick up a yamaha 12 string they had there and a book of Partridge family tunes and take a pen and paper and write the chord charts down. They were the only songs I knew.

That xmas, my parents suprised the hell outa me by buying me that 12 strings as a present.

The thing I always like to remind people though is that the Partridge Family was actually made up of the best L.A. studio musicians at the time.
Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine etc...
So I like to think that I learned from some of the best.
I definitely learned how to put together a pop song.

Seriously, listen to any Partridge Family song and how well the music and harmonies are put together.

Hendrix, Marylin Manson, the radio. Its funny because when I was little I was crazy about drums, I use to set up pillows on our couch like durms and take pencils or spoons and "play" along to some music. That I think about it, it sucks my parents didn't think that perhaps I would have like a drum set and I could have started on something early on. But anyway, I listened to a lot of radio when I was younger, back when "the top countdown" wasn't all rap and hip-hop and went from P. Diddy to Metalica. I found out about p2p programs and began d/l music, thats when I heard Pantera for the first time, and that expanded my horizons.

Basically, I wanted to be able to make all these cool noises I always heard and loved and finally had the opertunity a few years ago.